Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have the most expensive wedding of the year

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are wedding Saturday in a Scientology ceremony held at a 15th-century Italian castle in a lakeside town near Rome.

Photo: Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have the most expensive wedding of the year

Cruise arrived in Italy on Monday on a private jet, airport officials said. Holmes, who is 27, and Cruise, 44, became engaged in June 2005.

Their daughter, Suri, was born on April 18.

Cruise is the adoptive father of two children from his former marriage to Nicole Kidman, the AP reports.

Celebrities began arriving in Rome on Thursday for Tom Cruise's wedding to actress Katie Holmes this weekend in Italy, feeding a media frenzy.

Jim Carrey, Jennifer Lopez, Jada Pinkett Smith and " Mission : Impossible III" director J.J. Abrams were among the first guests of the showbusiness wedding to land at Rome 's Ciampino airport.

Cruise and Holmes later arrived at a central Rome restaurant for a party for some 130 guests, waving and acknowledging throngs of cheering fans for the first time since their arrival.

The couple and their guests were choosing from a menu featuring 12 dishes of mostly traditional Italian home-style cooking such as ravioli with meat sauce and artichokes prepared Roman-style.

Some 500 people, including David Beckham and his wife Victoria, are expected to attend the ceremony on Saturday at a medieval castle in the lakeside town of Bracciano, around 40 km (25 miles) north of the Italian capital, Reuters reports.

That ceremony will have no legal value here: in order to be valid, a civil ceremony between the two must take place. The couple visited Rome's City Hall yesterday, presumably to complete the paperwork for a civil union.

A rumour persists that there will also be a simple religious-style blessing, because a Roman Catholic priest was spotted entering the Hassler Hotel beside Rome's Spanish Steps, where Cruise and Holmes are staying. The priest refused to answer questions as he was ushered inside. Holmes, who has not been married before, was brought up a Roman Catholic and is said to be keen on having a traditional religious element to the ceremony.

When asked if he was there to see Tom and Katie, the priest wouldn't answer, although - tellingly - he was not turned away by a guard from the Roman security firm TPS, employed by Cruise for the event, scotsman.com says.

Scientology nuptials have many familiar elements _ such as a bridal procession, rings and a presiding minister _ while also adding the promise to clear the air before bed. The most traditional vows include "poetic" insights into men and women, including the frills and forgetfulness, that are meant to signify the need to "stand by each other," said a church minister who has performed weddings for 30 years, washingtonpost.com reports.

Source: agencies

Prepared by Alexander Timoshik
Pravda.ru