With fans massed on the banks of the Grand Canal, a drone flying overhead, and waterborne paparazzi swarming behind his taxi all the way from the island of Giudecca, George Clooney arrived at sunset for his wedding reception in the kind of grand spectacle that only the very rich and very glamorous can ever hope to pull off.
Flanked by security officials and dozens of photographers surrounding him on all sides, the actor waved from his by-now familiar vessel, the Amore, as the procession for his nuptials with human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin formed a flotilla of water taxis and motorboats on Venice's main thoroughfare.
Ahead of him came a stream of high-profile guests, among them fashion editor Anna Wintour, U2 frontman Bono and supermodel Cindy Crawford, whose husband, entertainment entrepreneur Rande Gerber, is believed to be Clooney's best man. But it was only once the groom himself had disembarked at the "seven-star" Aman Canal Grande resort that the party could really get started.
In a heady swirl of celebrity sparkle and old-style Italian glamour, Hollywood A-listers such as Brad Pitt, Robert De Niro and Matt Damon were expected to attend the main event of the four-day nuptial celebrations: a no-expense-spared reception at the 450-year-old palazzo, where gaps in the back entrance's wrought iron gates had been covered and a shield had been constructed over the canal-side jetty to block the prying paparazzi.
And, in a plot twist that could have come straight from a Hollywood script, the happy couple – after weeks of keeping the world's media guessing over the dates and details of their marriage – played one more trick on the hundreds of journalists in town: instead of sealing the deal on Monday in a ceremony at Venice city hall, as expected, they got married then and there at the Aman.
"George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin were married today in a private ceremony in Venice, Italy," Clooney's representative Stan Rosenfield said.
The 53-year-old actor had been expected to officially wed his British-Lebanese fiancée, 36, in an understated civil ceremony on Monday afternoon, after the council issued an order banning pedestrian traffic on a section of pavement outside its offices, citing concerns for public safety and traffic build-up due to the "ceremony" and Clooney's marriage.
After Saturday night's surprise announcement, it was unclear whether whether there would in fact be an official ceremony at the historic council buildings on Monday or whether it would simply be a question of the marriage being registered. Walter Veltroni, a former centre-left mayor of Rome and old friend of Clooney, was due to officiate at the wedding.
Every step of the wedding celebrations have been shrouded in secrecy and everyone involved has been subject to a strict confidentiality agreement. Local reports suggested the select group of invitees would be serenaded into the night by a string orchestra and jazz trio, with US singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey reportedly scheduled to give a rendition of Nat King Cole's When I Fall in Love. A five-course dinner including lemon risotto with lobster was served in the main library after guests had finished their champagne and canapés in the garden, Agence France Presse reported.
But further details were scarce. Staff at the Aman were covered by the non-disclosure agreement, and Venetian newspaper Il Gazzetino reported on Saturday that employees who were not required at the party would be kept in a room without their mobile phones for the duration of the reception unless their help was needed.
The paper also claimed that Clooney and Alamuddin had wanted to make last-minute changes to some of the hotel's historic decor, ordering in even more antiques to blend in with the frescoes by 18th-century painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo.
The couple spent Friday night celebrating with their respective friends and relatives, she emerging from the Grand Canal in a flowing red gown and he sailing in a dinner jacket and unbuttoned shirt aboard the Amore.
While she spent the evening with a small group of women, including her sister, Tala, and mother, Baria, inside the Aman, Clooney hit the town with six friends, Gerber included, and two bottles of the business partners' own Casamigos tequila.
Drinking shots on board the Amore, the group glided through the waterways of central Venice to sit down at a table at Da Ivo, a canalside restaurant between St Mark's Square and the Rialto bridge.
Staff said they had dined on plates of €70 truffle tagliolini, €30 courgette flowers with crab, and figs with prawns, also on the menu at €30. All of which was washed down with the tequila and a third of a magnum of 2010 Sassicaia, on which Clooney scrawled: "Grazia [sic]. Thank you. Another perfect night."
"They didn't drink much," said chef Luciano Gambardella. "They laughed, joked, chatted." Staff at the restaurant put red and white tablecloths over the windows to stop the paparazzi outside spoiling the evening, and were happy when the bachelor party left "a very generous" tip upon leaving shortly after midnight, said Gambardella.
"He's a wonderful person," he said, adding that Clooney had greeted all the staff in the restaurant. "What's nice about him is that when he talks to me, an ordinary person, he makes me feel like he's listening only to me and no one else."
Clooney and his guests have been staying at the Belmond Ciprani hotel, on tranquil Giudecca island. While journalists, photographers and tourists have expressed unabashed excitement over the elegant wedding, ordinary Venetians are taking the fuss in their stride. But some are happy that their city is basking in some positive publicity after a summer in which it was rocked by a corruption scandal involving the construction of the Moses dam and resignation of mayor Giorgio Orsoni.
"Let's make him ambassador … In fact, to be in keeping with the theme, let's make cavaliere [Knight] of La Serenissima [Venice]," wrote Sara d'Ascenzo in Corriere del Veneto. "Because George Clooney has returned Venice to the eyes of the world for an elite event which will be reported by tabloids and broadsheets from north to south, reflecting a rather different image of the city from that of the Moses bribesville."
