MADONNA WEDS GUY RITCHIE AT SKIBO CASTLE The highly-anticipated celebrity wedding of the year has finally happened -- Pop superstar Madonna and British director Guy Ritchie exchanged vows on the evening of December 22 2000 at Scotland's Skibo Castle while superstar pals looked on! Sources: Yahoo News, The Sun UK, People Weekly, USA Today, The Times UK, Matt Cho, BBC and CNN. Top: Madonna, seen here in a novel, gorgeous portfolio by Music fashion photographer Jean-Baptiste Mondino. Taken from Spanish magazine Shangay Express which features the diva on the cover and contributed exclusively by Jorge Lopez. Mondino, who's also Madonna and husband Guy Ritchie's matrimonial photographer, is expected to release, early next year, the much-sought-after official marriage photos of the newlyweds to the press. Pop Queen Madonna married her Prince Charming, British director Guy Ritchie, at the resplendent Skibo Castle in Scotland on December 22 2000. The £1.5-million wedding ceremony and reception began at 6:30pm GMT and was attended only by 60 people composed of family, close friends and celebrity pals under cover of darkness and behind the walls of the 19th-century estate. Madonna was clad in a stunning £20,000 ecru-coloured Gothic-style silk dress designed exclusively by Stella McCartney -- Chloe protιgι and daughter of ex-Beatle Paul McCartney. She also had on a priceless diamond-encrusted Cartier tiara once owned by Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco and a 90-year-old, 19-carat, French filigrιe diamond cuff bracelet worth £49,000 she borrowed from Moira, a London jeweller. And if reports were to be believed, she also donned a traditional green Scottish tartan sash and a pair of diamond-studded cowboy boots! Right: The 90-year-old, £49,000 diamond cuff bracelet that Madonna borrowed from Moira, a jeweller's at London's New Bond Street. Stella McCartney, who created her nuptial dress, chose it to complement the Gothic gown. Bottom: A luxurious guest bedroom inside the five-star Skibo Castle hotel. Guy, in the tradition of his Scottish Highlander father and grandfather, wore a kilt sans underpants in the green, blue, red and yellow of the hunting Mackintosh tartan. He'd also slipped in a sporran on his waist and a Shetland tweed jacket fastened by horn buttons. Stella McCartney acted as maid of honour, while Guy's two best men —- nightclub owner Piers Adam and producer Matthew Vaughn -— both turned up in kilts. Also present were lead actors from his film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Jason Stratham and Jason Flemyng. Other guests to the event included their baby son Rocco's godparents -- Sting, who came in a kilt and tartan tie, and his wife Trudie Styler, Stella McCartney, fashion designers Donatella Versace and Jean-Paul Gaultier, actresses Debi Mazar and Kelly Brook, wedding fashion (and Madonna's Music portfolio) photographer Jean-Baptiste Mondino, gal pal Ingrid Casares, Maverick Records mogul Guy Oseary, Madonna's manager Caresse Henry, Madonna's younger sister Melanie, brother Christopher, father Tony Ciccone and stepmother. The superstar's four-year-old daughter Lourdes and four-month-old Rocco were also present as Dornoch Cathedral minister Reverend Susan Brown presided at the wedding venue, which was decked out with £50,000 worth of fresh flowers including lilies and roses delivered from a local shop. Brown, who baptised Rocco the night before in a traditional Church of Scotland service at Dornoch Cathedral, married the lovebirds and allowed them a more liberal approach to the wedding, conducted in the tiny chapel of Skibo Castle. Madonna introduced her own vows to reflect her recent interests in Judaism and Buddhism. Skibo's castle intimidating security system has kept off intruders during the ceremony. The castle was surrounded by a ring of steel and swept for bugs and hidden cameras, while guards with thermal imaging gear patrolled the castle's 7,500-acre grounds before the wedding. Wedding guests who arrived via Inverness Airport on December 18 to 19 were already staying at the castle, while last-minute guests like Sting and his spouse Trudie, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Donatella Versace and Kelly Brook came in limousines amid frenzied paparazzi outside the gates. Earlier, Madonna went horse-riding on the estate's turf. She finished at lunch to gear for her big day -- her second after her failed marriage with actor Sean Penn on August 16 1985 in Malibu, California. Right after the blissful service, guests at the reception downed cases of vintage champagne and beajoulais from the castle cellar. The wedding audience was later served traditional Scottish dinner by candlelight in Skibo's wood-panelled great hall. Dishes include langoustine, haggis, venison from the estate, mussels from the Dornoch Firth and salmon. The guests then tucked into two wedding cakes -- one was made of profiterole balls and another was an Austrian chocolate cake made in the shape of a grand piano. The latter featured a keyboard and a lid made of sugar paste and a musical score from Ave Maria. Two days in the making, it had a base of Sacher chocolate sponge, sprayed with more chocolate plus a thin coating of marzipan, and sat atop wooden legs made by a local joiner. As a celebration of their love, Madonna and Guy planted an oak in the grounds of Skibo Castle on their wedding day. They planned to make an annual pilgrimage to the retreat to watch the little sapling grow -- a gesture of love suggested by hotel staff who had been overwhelmed by the couple's generosity and openness during their week-long stay. Skibo's resident piano player Talitha Ross revealed she had played for Madonna at the castle. "I was so honoured to play for Madonna," said the 20-year-old. "She asked me to play one of her favourite pieces of music which was Cole Porter's I've Got You Under My Skin -- which fortunately I knew. Madonna was so friendly and approachable. She even congratulated me on my playing. It was fantastic." The newlyweds spent their first night as a married couple in the most sumptuous suite in the 21-bedroom hotel. It featured the four-poster bed once used by the man who built Skibo, Victorian philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. The joyous duo plan to kick off their honeymoon at Sting's grand mansion in Wiltshire, southern England. THE LATEST EXCLUSIVE WEDDING DETAILS FROM PEOPLE Shortly after 6:30pm GMT on December 22 2000 and guided by the illumination of hundreds of candles, Gwyneth Paltrow, Rupert Everett, Donatella Versace, a kilt-clad Sting and some 55 others gathered near the foot of the grand staircase in the Great Hall of Skibo Castle. Lourdes, shoeless and in a long ivory dress with short sleeves and a high neck, led the processional. She descended the staircase throwing handfuls of rose petals from a basket. "As soon as they saw Madonna's daughter tossing red rose petals," says a guest, "people were crying." Bridegroom Guy Ritchie followed, clad in a vibrant teal blazer, antique diamond cufflinks -- a wedding gift from Madonna (supposedly the filigrιe cuff bracelet mentioned above) -- and a Hunting Mackintosh plaid kilt of navy and green. Infant Rocco, who was held by a nanny, sported a matching kilt. There were two best men, Matthew Vaughn, producer of Guy's films (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch), and London nightclub owner Piers Adam. Vinnie Jones, also Guy's pal, was to have flown in from Los Angeles to play as best man, but was forbidden by John Travolta to leave the scene of filming. Then, enter the bride: Madonna's strapless ivory silk gown, designed by Stella McCartney, boasted a fitted corset bodice and a long train. The diva wore an antique veil, Jimmy Choo shoes and an Edwardian diamond tiara (uncertain if this is the priceless Princess Grace Cartier tiara) loaned by Asprey & Garrard of London, while a 37-carat, 2½-inch diamond cross, custom-designed specially by the House of Harry Winston in New York, hung to her cleavage. Stella, who also styled Lourdes' gown, was the maid-of-honour, while Gwyneth came along as a bridesmaid. The couple then exchanged unmatched wedding rings. Hers was a platinum band with several small diamonds created exclusively by a Beverly Hills jeweller and weighing in at a cool £10,000. And while Madonna's pal Rosie O'Donnell couldn't make it due to the holidays, Guy's father, John Ritchie, 72, said of the event: "It was lovely." MADONNA ATTENDS HER FIRST MIDNIGHT MASS IN YEARS Madonna and Guy Ritchie stunned a village congregation by turning up at a Christmas midnight mass in St Michael's Church in Wilsford-cum-Lake, Wiltshire, with friend Sting and his wife Trudie Styler. The couple spent their honeymoon and Christmas at Sting's 52-acre estate in the tiny village following their wedding in Scotland last week. The four were among the earliest to arrive at the church on Christmas Eve after having spent an hour enjoying festive drinks in the village pub, The Bridge. Madonna was said to have "jumped at the chance" when mass attendance was suggested. Madonna and Guy joined in the carolling, which included traditional hymns like While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night and O Come All Ye Faithful. They faithfully thanked Canon John Reynolds, who held the mass at the mediaeval church, after the service. Canon Reynolds said, "Sting and Trudie are part of our village so I did not feel nervous preaching in front of Madonna. They were made to feel very welcome, as are all visitors. I didn't notice any of the villagers going to ask for their autographs... Madonna and Guy looked very happy but they weren't over-affectionate with each other. I thought she looked very pretty, as did Trudie." The stars spent Christmas Day indoors at Sting's beautiful Elizabethan mansion to tuck into a sumptuous Christmas dinner. CLICK HERE FOR HOT-OFF-THE-PRESS MADONNA PICTURES All the latest news snapshots of Madonna courtesy of Yahoo! Inc. CLICK HERE FOR HOT-OFF-THE-PRESS MADONNA PICTURES All the latest news snapshots of Madonna courtesy of Excite.Com.

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