The Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds Plantation Wedding Controversy Explained
"What we saw at the time was a wedding venue on Pinterest. What we saw after was a place built upon devastating tragedy," Ryan said.
Published Aug. 14 2024, 11:58 a.m. ET
It may seem as if everything Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds touch turns to gold. After all, as of August 2024, they are the first married couple to top the movie theater box office with It Ends With Us and Deadpool & Wolverine respectively, in over three decades, proving the actors have tons of fans worldwide.
However, when Blake and Ryan got married back in 2012, what was supposed to be a purely magical day stirred up controversy due to the setting for the nuptials: a former plantation.
Read on for the full scoop on why the stars get hitched in such a cringe-worthy place — and what they have since said about that decision.
Yes, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds had their wedding at a former plantation, and controversy ensued.
The A-list stars that we love and adore chose South Carolina's Boone Hall Plantation & Gardens for their Sept. 9, 2012, wedding, per E! News.
And while the setting was indeed idyllic in appearance, having been the setting for The Notebook, the fact that it had such a dark past meant that people were understandably upset.
By 2020, Ryan was apologizing for what he called "a giant f--king mistake."
As he told Fast Company, "It's impossible to reconcile. What we saw at the time was a wedding venue on Pinterest. What we saw after was a place built upon devastating tragedy."
In an effort to make up for their lapse in judgment, the wealthy couple announced they had donated $200,000 to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
"We're ashamed that in the past we've allowed ourselves to be uninformed about how deeply rooted systemic racism is," they said in a statement in part posted to Instagram in May 2020.
The statement continued, "We've been teaching our children differently than the way our parents taught us. We want to educate ourselves about other people's experiences and talk to our kids about everything, all of it ... especially our own complicity."
There's been renewed interest in the question: Where did Blake Lively get married?
With the Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni It Ends With Us controversy raging on (the director and co-star of the movie is reportedly not on good terms with the star producer and lead or the rest of the cast), some fans are outright boycotting the film because of the shady truth of where Blake and Ryan tied the knot.
One TikToker posted a reminder of the unsettling nuptials as the movie based on Colleen Hoover's novel raked in big bucks upon its debut.
"Let’s don't forget that Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds got married on a plantation," a creator who shares content using the handle @exclusivepalmbeachliving said.
The caption continued, "Back in 2012, the couple exchanged vows at Boone Hall Plantation in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Years later they held a a second wedding at their home after feeling the venue of the first one was a 'mistake.'"
Indeed, Ryan and Blake said "I do" again after the Boone Hall disaster.
In the same Fast Company interview, Ryan shared that he and his star wife had decided to say "I do" for a second time following their controversial ceremony at Boone Hall.
"Years ago, we got married again at home — but shame works in weird ways," the Deadpool actor said. He added in part that mistakes might happen again, adding, "But repatterning and challenging lifelong social conditioning is a job that doesn't end."
