Saturday, July 10, 2010

Carrie Underwood's wedding

The wedding of singer Carrie Underwood and hockey player Mike Fisher has taken over a tranquil resort in Greensboro, Georgia. The former American Idol contestant and her NHL groom are tying the knot this weekend at the Ritz-Carlton Lodge, Reynolds Plantation. Local papers confirm that security is in full force and more than 250 rooms are rented out for celebrity guests including Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and members of Fisher's team the Ottawa Senators. E Online reports that the road to the hotel will be closed to nonwedding traffic on Saturday.


Underwood and Fisher may be spending their wedding night in the Ritz's 5,400-square-foot Presidential House, a place that former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have visited. The lakeside retreat is a three-story cottage with four master bedroom suites and a great room that opens onto a private heated outdoor pool overlooking the shores of Lake Oconee.

Security is apparently extremely tight at the resort -- the Ritz-Carlton Lodge, Reynolds Plantation in Greensboro, Ga., about 75 miles east of Atlanta -- where the ceremony will take place this afternoon. The lodge sits on a secluded lakefront property well out of public view. Anyone who's not invited to the wedding was ushered out of the resort on Friday, according to several reports, and the one road into the property and its lakefront are well-guarded.

How well guarded? This amusing account in the Ottawa Citizen -- Fisher plays for the NHL's Ottawa Senators -- gives you a pretty good idea.

Look, we get that if you're spending half a million dollars on your wedding -- as Underwood and Fisher reportedly are -- then you don't want to worry about paparazzi or overzealous fans crashing the party. Especially when the guest list includes the likes of "Idol" luminaries Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill and several of Fisher's Sens teammates.

But, uh, how to put this ... seriously? The lockdown seems a little much. According to the Ottawa Citizen, only about a dozen out-of-town media folks had arrived in town as of Friday afternoon -- Underwood and Fisher are each pretty big stars in their respective fields, but their union doesn't strike us as being on the media-frenzy level of, say, Brangelina.

Or even Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen, who managed to get married last year in a church that's across from a public park in Santa Monica without nearly as much fuss. Just saying.

We wish Carrie and Mike all the best, and if extra-tight security helps with that, then mazel tov.