Jennifer Lopez marries Ben Affleck in Las Vegas: ‘Love is patient’

“We did it. Love is beautiful. Love is kind. And it turns out love is patient. Twenty years patient.” That’s how singer Jennifer Lopez announced she had married actor Ben Affleck in Las Vegas on Saturday. “Last night we flew to Vegas, stood in line for a license with four other couples, all making the same journey to the wedding capital of the world,” she said in a message on her On The JLo newsletter, adding it was “exactly what we wanted.”

Since the stars confirmed their engagement in April, there has been a lot of speculation about what kind of wedding they would have. Lopez and Affleck were a couple between 2002 and 2004. They were set to get married, but cancelled the wedding just four days before it was due to take place. A few months later, the couple broke off their relationship.

But Lopez and Affleck, who are now 51 and 48 years old respectively, remained friends over the past two decades. Last year, the pair reunited, and it was not long before they announced their engagement.

“Behind us two men held hands and held each other. In front of us, a young couple who made the three-hour drive from Victorville on their daughter’s second birthday – all of us wanting the same thing – for the world to recognize us as partners and to declare our love to the world through the ancient and nearly universal symbol of marriage,” wrote Lopez in her personal newsletter, which shared photos from the wedding.

“Stick around long enough and maybe you’ll find the best moment of your life in a drive through in Las Vegas at 12.30 in the morning in the tunnel of love drive through, with your kids and the one you’ll spend forever with. Love is a great thing, maybe the best of things – and worth waiting for,” said Lopez, who is also known as J.Lo.

Two dresses for the bride, one ‘from an old movie’

Lopez had two dresses for the occasion. For the ceremony, she wore a classic, boatneck design, from an “old movie.” “With the best witnesses you could ever imagine, a dress from an old movie and a jacket from Ben’s closet, we read our own vows in the little chapel and gave one another the rings we’ll wear for the rest of our lives,” she said.

“I’ve had this dress for so many years, and I’ve just been saving it, saving it, saving it, and now I’m wearing it on my wedding day,” she added in an emotional clip shared in her On the JLo newsletter.

To exchange their vows, Lopez wore a dress from Zuhair Murad’s bridal collection for spring/summer 2023, as confirmed by People magazine. The dress featured long sleeves, a sweetheart neckline, corset bodice and fishtail train. The star wore a Zuhair Murad wedding gown in her recent romantic comedy Marry Me. In her newsletter, Lopez thanked the Little White Wedding Chapel “for letting me use the break room to change while Ben changed in the men’s room.”

For his part, Ben Affleck wore a white tuxedo that he had worn on previous occasions, a black bow tie and a white flower on his lapel.

Jennifer Lopez becomes Mrs. Affleck

“With love, Mrs. Jennifer Lynn Affleck.” That’s how Lopez signed off her newsletter, in a sign that she will take her husband’s surname. It was first reported by TMZ entertainment website that the couple had obtained a marriage license in Clark County, Nevada, where the singer’s last name was changed.

A pink Cadillac, but no Elvis

Weddings in Las Vegas are often Elvis-themed, but while Lopez and Affleck’s nuptials were not presided by an Elvis lookalike, they were able to take some photos in the rock star’s signature pink Cadillac. “They let us take pictures in a pink Cadillac convertible, evidently once used by the king himself (but if we wanted Elvis himself to show, that cost extra and he was in bed),” wrote Lopez.

“Best witnesses”

The wedding was attended by many special guests, including Affleck’s three children with Jennifer Garner – Violet Anne, Seraphina Rose, and Samuel – and Lopez’s fraternal twins with Marc Anthony – Emme and Maximilian Muñiz. The singer described the children as the “best witnesses you could ever imagine.”

“In the end, it was the best possible wedding we could have imagined,” she added. “One we dreamed of long ago and one made real (in the eyes of the state, Las Vegas, a pink convertible and one another) at very, very long last.”