While Nicola Peltz’s billionaire father, Nelson, is suing his daughter’s axed wedding planners over a $159,000 deposit in a petty-looking lawsuit, another of her almost-planners, Preston Bailey, says the seeming bridezilla was actually “great.”
Celebrity wedding guru Bailey — who put together Donald and Melania Trump’s wedding, as well as Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s nups and techie Sean Parker and Alexandra Lenas’ medieval-inspired ceremony — was the first planner hired for actress Nicola’s wedding to David and Victoria Beckham’s son, Brooklyn.
But with six months left to the wedding date, the Peltzes needed to find another planner.
Bailey — who was hired in April 2021 and stepped down March 1, 2022, 11 months into the job — tells us that he was simply overbooked and couldn’t deliver on the extravagant ceremony of the young couple’s dreams.
“I was overcommitted,” Bailey tells Page Six exclusively. “I couldn’t deliver to the quality I was used to.”
He tells us: “I have the best to say about the Peltzes and Nicola. There wasn’t any bad blood.”
He added of the billionaire Peltz family, “They are lovely people. These people are important to me.” And he said, “Nicola was great.”
Bailey, who has also worked with Oprah Winfrey, Mariah Carey, Uma Thurman and Michael Douglas, among others, put together the couple’s engagement party.
Nicola’s father, Nelson, is now suing the planners hired to replace Bailey just six months before the wedding date, Nicole Braghin and Arianna Grijalba, for allegedly refusing to give back the $159,000 deposit he gave them.
He also claims in a lawsuit that “references to alcohol use and possible [alcohol] abuse” by the wedding planners were not “unusual.” An alleged text is included in the suit from one of the planners, reading, “I’m going for a tequila my head is about to explode.”
After only nine days on the job, Grijalba and Braghin decided not to move forward because they could not handle the couple’s guest list, which included more than 500 people.
The “Transformers: Age of Extinction” actress allegedly wrote in texts to the planners, “Lewis Hamilton did NOT RSVP. So explain why his names [sic] on the list please.” And, “We spoke to him. He can’t come so explain why you said he rsvpd yes.”
“I need time to do this,” Grijalba allegedly wrote. “I’m going to take a moment to learn the app and send you the information, I hate looking like a fool but I hate the most not giving you what you need ASAP.”
Nicola allegedly curtly replied, “That’s not true. He didn’t rsvp AT ALL.”
A lawyer for Braghin and Grijalba called the suit “frivolous and unimpressive,” in the Mirror and said they plan to file a counterclaim.
Michelle Rago of Michelle Rago Destinations was hired to complete the task.
The ceremony took place at the family’s posh Palm Beach, Fla., estate with starry guests such as Serena and Venus Williams, Eva Longoria and chef Gordon Ramsay.
Planners weren’t the only problem for Nicola.
In August, Page Six exclusively reported that there was tension between Brooklyn’s designer mom, Victoria, and her new daughter-in-law, Nicola, with a source telling us, “The build-up to the wedding was horrendous.”
There were rumors that the icy relationship was why Nicola did not wear a dress by Victoria. But Nicola later told Variety, “I was going to and I really wanted to, and then a few months down the line, she realized that her atelier couldn’t do it, so then I had to pick another dress. She didn’t say ‘you can’t wear it;’ I didn’t say I didn’t want to wear it.”
The post Nicola Peltz’s first wedding planner, Preston Bailey, speaks out appeared first on Page Six.
