Taylor Swift wedding guests’ bewildered reaction to Adam Sandler officiating revealed: ‘Everybody thought it was a joke’
Adam Sandler’s presence at the altar of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding caused the 1,000 attendees to burst out laughing and believe it was a joke.
American Century Investments CEO Jonathan Thomas, who attended the ceremony, described the scene on Thursday’s episode of The Compound and Friends podcast.
Sandler’s entrance turned out not to be a gag because the funnyman, 59, who cast Kelce for a cameo in Happy Gilmore 2, became legally ordained so he could marry his close friends at Madison Square Garden on July 3.
‘Adam Sandler officiated it,’ Thomas, who knows Kelce ‘fairly well,’ told hosts Sean Russo and Downtown Josh Brown. ‘He came down, everybody laughed and thought it was a joke at first.
‘He actually spoke for 20 or 30 minutes, vacillated between funny, very sincere, sang a few things. There are two things that I remember distinctly, one is in your typical vows the officiator says, “For rich or for poor,” and he said, “You’re not going to have to worry about that.”‘
Swift is worth an estimated $2 billion while Kelce’s multimillions have been accumulated through his successful NFL career. The lovebirds, who spent an estimated $30 million on their wedding, recently welcomed a white Samoyed into their home.
The Daily Mail has contacted Swift and Kelce’s representatives for comment.
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce – seen here in August 2025 – brought in Adam Sandler to officiate their Madison Square Garden wedding on July 3, but attendees initially ‘thought it was a joke,’ according to one guest
But it wasn’t a joke as Sandler, 59, became legally ordained so he could marry his close friends; pictured in August 2025 in Venice, Italy
Thomas revealed that Sandler’s message to the couple was, ‘Kiss each other every day, in the morning, at night after dinner, just kiss often.’
Thomas went on to describe the personally written vows spoken by the couple.
‘Travis went first with his vows,’ the financial exec remembered. ‘He probably spoke for 30 minutes and I don’t want to violate his privacy but I was crying, which I was trying to hold back. He made himself unbelievably vulnerable. And then I look around and there’s all these 300-pound men from the football business crying as well, so I felt really comfortable to let go on it.
‘And then Taylor went and she also wrote her own vows. She probably spoke for 30 minutes and it was poetic. It was really well done.’
Thomas bowled over the podcast hosts with inside details of the massive reception at the world-famous Manhattan arena.
‘You would never guess you’re in Madison Square Garden the way they did, it was incredible, but you walk through this castle that they built and behind it they had all sorts of games, amazing giveaways to people, and then the stage,’ Thomas described.
‘Initially Taylor and Paul McCartney sang, and then Taylor and Stevie Nicks sang. And then for the rest of the night, everyone in the entertainment industry – I kept saying if anything happens to this building, everyone in the entertainment industry in the US is gone – they just popped up on stage and sang songs.’
Thomas revealed that he and his wife were surrounded on the dance floor by ‘legends’: McCartney, Brad Pitt, Cindy Crawford and many more, and added that Swift and Kelce calibrated the second part of the event to their guests to make sure they were entertained.
American Century Investments CEO Jonathan Thomas described wedding guests’ reaction on Thursday’s episode of The Compound and Friends podcast; Thomas, left, is pictured with hosts Downtown Josh Brown, center, and Sean Russo, right
Thomas said the couple built a castle for the ceremony ‘and behind it they had all sorts of games, amazing giveaways to people, and then the stage’; Swift and Kelce are pictured on March 26 in Los Angeles
The NFL star and Sandler bonded on the set of Happy Gilmore 2, in which Kelce had a cameo
‘They went over the top to make sure everybody had a great time,’ the financial exec added
‘They went over the top to make sure everybody had a great time,’ Thomas said.
However, not everyone at the wedding appeared to be in awe of the lavish festivities.
Lena Dunham’s risqué dinner speech, in which she reportedly quipped, ‘American football is just straight guys reenacting gay porn,’ drew ‘gasps and laughs’ from guests, an insider told the Daily Mail.
Swift and Kelce’s raffle, which saw them giving out expensive gifts including Chanel bags to the guests, also raised more than a few eyebrows.
‘It was really bizarre,’ the insider said.