Jennifer Lopez gave her fans an intimate look at her lavish second marriage to husband Ben Affleck on her “On The J.Lo” newsletter on Thursday.
The pop star, 53, shared that she walked down the aisle to Marc Cohn’s “True Companion,” which she and Affleck, 50, thought was the “perfect wedding love song” when they first got engaged more than 20 years ago.
“Although Ben didn’t know, I asked Marc to surprise him by singing it at our wedding and he was sweet and generous to come,” Lopez said.
The “Waiting for Tonight” singer also wrote about the couple’s respective children from their previous marriage walking down the aisle to “The Things We’ve Handed Down.”
“The twenty years between those dreams of childhood and the adult world of love and family we embraced that day brought more to this marriage than we could have ever imagined,” Lopez said of the endearing moment.
“We didn’t just marry each other; we married these children into a new family. They were the only people we asked to stand up for us at our wedding party. To our great honor and joy, everyone did.”
However, not the entire weekend went smoothly. Lopez shared that “all of us” got a stomach flu in the days leading up to the wedding.
Still, she thought, “The truth is, I’ve never had any doubts. All week long I felt the calm and easy assurance that we were in God’s hands…”
The festivities surrounding the stunning wedding took place over three days, with the ceremony kicking off on Saturday at Affleck’s sprawling plantation-style estate in rural Georgia. The celebrations concluded on Sunday with brunch on the 87-acre property.
The pair sent the guests home with custom tote bags labeled “JB.” Lopez, 53, and Affleck, 50, added a personal touch to each bag by decorating the straps with a name tag for each guest attending the southern soirée.
In addition, the rekindled lovers gave the attendees who were staying at a nearby hotel custom-made chocolate boxes. Unfortunately, Affleck’s brother, Casey, didn’t get parting gifts because he skipped the highly anticipated wedding.
Lopez wore three different Ralph Lauren dresses for the occasion, the first of which was a dramatic short-sleeved look that featured over 1,000 handkerchiefs and 500 yards of fabric cut into ruffles and hand tied around the skirt and turtleneck.
Ben and J.Lo’s storied romantic history began in the early years, when the two met in 2002 as co-stars on the set of the 2003 thriller-slash-rom-com film ‘Gigli’.
By the summer, Lopez had filed for divorce from then-husband Chris Judd—a quick turn of events that easily freed her left hand for the 6-carat pink diamond ring Affleck proposed to her not long after.
While the then-engaged couple initially planned to get married in 2003, they chose to postpone their wedding due to “excessive media attention.” But alas, aughts-era Bennifer never makes it to the altar, as the two publicly announced their breakup in January 2004.
Shortly after, the two broke up and married other people. Lopez married Marc Anthony in 2004, while Affleck said “I do” to Jennifer Garner in 2005.
Lopez and Anthony then welcomed twins Emme and Maximilian in 2008. Meanwhile, Garner and Affleck had three children of their own, Violet, Seraphina and Samuel.
Lopez and Affleck’s marriages eventually ended in divorce, in 2014 and 2015 respectively, respectively. The two have subsequently gone through a number of relationships over the years, with Lopez most notably ending her engagement to Alex Rodriguez in March 2021.
Not long after, sources told Vidak For Congress that Bennifer’s return could be in the works, with Affleck coming and going several times from Lopez’s house.
In April 2022, the two were engaged again — and J.Lo then gushed about Affleck’s expertly executed proposal in a video sent through her newsletter.
“He gives me a ring and he says it’s a green diamond. [Green is] my favorite color, it’s also my lucky color,” she gushed. “Obviously it will now be my lucky color forever. It means so much when someone thinks of you and loves you and sees you.”
Lopez also said the proposal was “just the most perfect” moment, telling fans: “I feel so lucky. You don’t often get a second chance at true love.”
In July, the couple spontaneously chose to tie the knot in Las Vegas at the Little White Chapel, famous for attracting lovers looking to play chess. They then embarked on a photogenic honeymoon in Paris, where they also celebrated Lopez’s 53rd birthday.
The minister who oversaw the iconic Las Vegas couple’s wedding, Ryan Wolfe, told Vidak For Congress in an exclusive interview that while leading more than 10,000 weddings, he’s developed a “feel” for newlyweds to end up with for life. will stay together.
“Their vows were beautiful, they were special. And I know they were very important to them,” Wolfe told us after the wedding. “You could tell it was something between them that they wanted to share. It was a very special, emotional ceremony and a moment they shared.”
Lopez later shared her memories of the Las Vegas ceremony in her newsletter, exclaiming, “We did it. Love is beautiful. Love is kind. And it turns out love is patient. Twenty years of patience.”