What It Was Like To Eat At Elvis Presley's $10,000 Wedding Reception
Elvis Presley was the King of Rock and Roll, but what is a king without a queen? For Elvis, it was Priscilla Beaulieu, with whom he tied the knot on May 1, 1967. But their relationship wasn't exactly a fairy tale. It began when Elvis was 24 and Priscilla was just 14. They met on a military base in West Germany — Elvis was in the Army and Priscilla's stepfather was a member of the Air Force. Despite the age gap (and the fact that Priscilla's infatuation with Elvis led to a drop in her school grades), her parents eventually let her move to Memphis to be with him, where she settled into the star's Graceland manor. There was one condition though: Elvis had to promise to make Priscilla his bride.
In 1966, seven years after they had first met, Elvis finally popped the question with the help of a three-and-a-half-carat diamond engagement ring. The marriage would ultimately last just six years, unraveling over Elvis' addiction and infidelity and Priscilla's need for more control over her life, but it began on the highest of high notes. The Presleys' wedding reception featured one of the most sumptuous meal spreads in matrimonial history, centered around a breakfast buffet packed with Southern comforts harkening back to Elvis' Mississippi roots. The Champagne flowed like a river, and it was all followed up by one of the most memorable wedding cakes ever made, a dessert so grandiose that it's inspired countless recreations in the decades since.
Married in Vegas
Today, the idea of a Las Vegas marriage elicits images of shotgun weddings and spur-of-the-moment unions between impulsive tourists, perhaps officiated by an Elvis impersonator. But when the real man himself got married in Sin City, the festivities were actually rather wholesome.
You would expect the King of Rock and Roll and his bride to have a ceremony of royal proportions, but Elvis' manager, the legendary Colonel Tom Parker, went to great lengths to ensure that the couple had as much privacy as possible. Elvis was joined by a few of his closest friends, while Priscilla was joined by her parents and sister. They were married in a suite at the Aladdin Hotel, which they entered through a backdoor to avoid the press.
The ceremony took place in the morning and was followed by a reception for 100 guests, where they dined on a $10,000 buffet spread that included oysters Rockefeller, roast suckling pig, lobster, fried chicken, and Champagne. The rocker had an infamous appetite, but no peanut butter and banana sandwiches were served here (besides, Elvis' real favorite sandwich was an entirely different peanut butter monstrosity). This was all served at 9 a.m. — quite a way to start the day — and the main course would soon be overshadowed by dessert.
A cake fit for the King
Elvis and Priscilla Presley's six-tiered wedding cake stood 5 feet tall, and when placed atop a table, it towered over the newlyweds. Created by the Aladdin Hotel's head chef, Bill Jaeger, and pastry chef Denis Martig, it was made from yellow sponge cake with two unique fillings: apricot marmalade and Bavarian cream flavored with kirsch, a type of brandy made from morello cherries. They chose the most popular wedding cake frosting, white fondant, and flavored it with more kirsch before piping on royal icing for added detail.
The cake was decorated with approximately 1,600 marzipan roses, 48 sugar hearts, and 478 silver sugared almonds. It took 20 pounds of Crisco vegetable shortening to make the behemoth. The cake alone cost $3,200, but when you adjust for inflation, that's over $30,000 in 2024 money! The Presleys certainly got their money's worth, as the cake was the centerpiece of a series of press photos that had the American public longing for a King-sized wedding of their own. It has since gone down as one of the most iconic wedding cakes in pop culture history, and it was even recreated in 2023 to honor the 70th anniversary of Las Vegas as the wedding capital of the world.