The wedding of Elvis Presley and longtime love Priscilla Beaulieu was the culmination of a promise made to her parents years earlier. When she was a teenager, Priscilla moved to Memphis to live with the rock and roll superstar at his Graceland home. He promised to make their relationship official, and the couple did so on May 1, 1967. The ceremony featured a breakfast buffet, a press conference, and swinging 60s attire from two surprise sources.
Elvis Presley proposed to Priscilla in 1966
Before Christmas in 1966, Elvis got down on one knee in his bedroom and proposed to Priscilla. He gave her a three-and-a-half-carat diamond ring surrounded by 20 detachable diamonds.
Vogue shared information regarding the proposal from Becky Yanky, Elvis’s private secretary and author of My Life with Elvis. “He just told me about the ring one day and asked if I wanted to marry him. ‘More than ever,’ I told him.”
The couple planned their wedding, orchestrated by Elvis’ manager, Colonel Tom Parker. The couple flew to Las Vegas shortly after midnight on May 1 in a private jet loaned to them by Frank Sinatra. Their guests flew in a separate plane. Upon arriving at the Aladdin Hotel, Elvis and Priscilla went through a back door to avoid onlookers and ready themselves for the ceremony.
Priscilla, 21, and Elvis, 32, were wed by Nevada Supreme Court Judge David Zenoff in a flower-filled suite at the Aladdin hotel.
Elvis wore a tuxedo designed by a film studio tailor, and Priscilla, an off-the-rack gown
To prepare for her big day, Priscilla shopped for her high-necked ivory wedding dress in the company of long-term Memphis mafia member Charlie Hodge. He posed as her fiance. Priscilla explained, as reported by Vogue, “I went to places like Neiman Marcus in disguise,” she later said. “I went with a [blonde] wig and everything just to keep it private!”
Priscilla eventually found her dream dress at a Los Angeles department store named Westwood. The gown was high-necked, had long sleeves, and was dotted with pearls and rhinestones. Priscilla also wore a three-foot tulle veil topped with a rhinestone tiara.
“It wasn’t extravagant, and it wasn’t extreme — it was simple and, to me, beautiful. I didn’t have time to stay there forever and look at dresses. I had one fitting for this dress, and that was it; I was out of there.”
A tailor from MGM studios named Lambert Marks made Elvis’ tuxedo. The material was black paisley silk brocade.
Per Vogue, Elvis accessorized his tuxedo with a platinum, diamond, and sapphire watch. He completed the outfit with diamond and sapphire cuff links and cowboy boots. His pompadour hairstyle was held high above his head with wire to keep it in place throughout the ceremony.
The couple had a press conference and champagne breakfast right after saying ‘I do’
After their wedding ceremony, Elvis and Priscilla held a press conference arranged by Colonel Tom Parker. The Las Vegas Sun reported Presley stated he met Priscilla six years earlier while stationed as a soldier in Germany. Priscilla’s mother, Anne, said, “They became very close friends at the time, but I don’t think any of us had a thought they’d get married.”
For their reception, Elvis and Priscilla joined 100 guests for a champagne breakfast, complete with a five-foot-tall, six-tier yellow cake. The foods that were served are as follows. Fried chicken, roast suckling pig, oysters Rockefeller, clams, ham and eggs, poached salmon, and lobster, reported Brides Magazine.
