Taylor Swift wedding live: Streets close, MSG preps and stars arrive as pop star to marry Travis Kelce – UK Times

Professor Stephanie Burt has observed Taylor’s songwriting themes evolve over time, even if she already proved she had “a good sense of herself” from her debut album.

“She’s written wonderful songs about how it feels to be in a romance that’s a bad idea; superb songs about how and when to get out of that romance; and at least a handful of very good ones (’Paper Rings,’ ‘New Year’s Day’ and ‘Opalite’ come to mind) about how it feels to get seriously romantically involved with a hot guy you can also trust to support you,” she explains.

“One through line: throw yourself into romance if you like, but don’t let your romantic partner separate you from the other things that give your life meaning. There are greater things to do and more important things to do, for her and for anyone else, than marrying the guy on the football team. Even if you are, literally, marrying the guy on the football team.”

Given Taylor’s lucky number is 13, you can bet that’ll be represented at least a few ways across this weekend’s celebrations.

Biographer Anna Pointer told The Mirror that this could extend to the number of bridesmaids she has, predicting she’ll enlist best friend Lena Dunham (Swift was a bridesmaid at the Girls creator’s wedding in 2021), her bestie and fellow pop star Selena Gomez, the three Haim sisters – Este, Alana and Danielle, Emma Stone, Gigi Hadid, her childhood best friend Abigail, friend Ashley Avignone, and Travis’s four nieces. Which makes for 13!

Taylor Swift has happily regaled fans with tales of how she was wooed by Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

Clearly, word got back to Swift – as she turned up to support him at one of his games just months later. In her recent guest appearance on New Heights, where she announced the forthcoming release of her next album, she remarked: “It felt [like] I was in an Eighties John Hughes movie, and he was standing outside of my window with a boombox saying, ‘I want to date you! Do you want to go on a date with me?’”

“I was like, ‘If this guy’s not crazy, this is sort of what I’ve been writing songs about wanting to happen to me since I was a teenager,’” she added.

Kelce’s all-caps enthusiasm is something that Brits seem to view as uncouth (personally, I quite enjoy it), and in general the idea of the “big gesture” – from baby gender reveals to proposals and even asking out dates to the prom – is arguably far more prevalent in the States. He also seems far more comfortable, even while admitting it’s a learning curve, with the absurd attention that comes with being with the world’s most famous woman.

Professor Stephanie Burt, who famously created a hugely popular Taylor Swift seminar at Harvard University, tells me the wedding that she thinks the wedding is going to be “big and fun to watch”.

“I hope Swifties can watch it at some point– on the Internet somewhere if not live,” she said. She also predicts that there will be “several” live music performances… “probably including Gracie Abrams and at least one performer older than Taylor.” And expect plenty of “cheering NFLers, including Jason Kelce, who will probably be in the wedding party”.

“I suspect she’ll avoid fairytale symbolism of the kind that we saw on her first few records, because that’s not who she is any more,” Prof Burt added.

Some analysis from my colleague Holly Baxter, who argues that Swift and Kelce’s wedding is indicative of how New York is now “a rich person’s playground dressed up as a livable city…” but she says the happy couple are the symptom, not the disease:

Given Taylor’s lucky number is 13, you can bet that’ll be represented at least a few ways across this weekend’s celebrations.

Biographer Anna Pointer told The Mirror that this could extend to the number of bridesmaids she has, predicting she’ll enlist best friend Lena Dunham (Swift was a bridesmaid at the Girls creator’s wedding in 2021), her bestie and fellow pop star Selena Gomez, the three Haim sisters – Este, Alana and Danielle, Emma Stone, Gigi Hadid, her childhood best friend Abigail, friend Ashley Avignone, and Travis’s four nieces. Which makes for 13!

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding at Madison Square Garden is set to kick off this weekend, with the big event expected to last over 10 hours, Page Six has reported.

The festivities will apparently commence with a rehearsal dinner for 100 guests on Thursday from 6:00 to 10:30 p.m. ET at the arena’s Infosys Theater, with guests reportedly planning to enter through 4 Penn Plaza.

On Friday, doors for the wedding open at 3:30 p.m., followed by a cocktail hour at 4 p.m. on the 6th-floor concourse.

The ceremony is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on the arena floor, with the reception kicking off at 6:30 p.m.

The reception is expected to conclude at 2:00 a.m., with over 1,000 guests anticipated to attend the Friday event.