The thing about Taylor Swift’s MSG wedding is: You have to care about it. Sure, you can maybe choose to abstain from caring about Taylor Swift in the ordinary course of your life, but when she invades midtown Manhattan and invites hundreds of A-listers to celebrate her nuptials … at which Paul McCartney played “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” Adam Sandler officiated, and Lena Dunham made a slightly risky joke … I’m sorry, you simply must care, even if you wish you didn’t!!
Fran Hoepfner did the shoe-leather reporting: she spent several days hanging out in the environs of MSG during a heatwave, chatting with teenage Swifties, paparazzi, and regular Joes who didn’t even know who Taylor was marrying. In the aftermath, I got her on the phone.
Fran, you wrote the first draft of history this weekend. What was it like to be in the room where it happened, or at least on the street somewhat near the room?
This is not a part of the city anyone is actively going to hang out in most of the time. We're there by necessity to get a train or see a show. And so just to be in that Herald Square, MSG, Penn Station area for eight hours a day two days in a row was hugely overstimulating, and I think it would have been even if this wasn't happening. There’s everything there and nothing there.
Who was the most interesting person you chatted with?
The teen Swifties that I spoke to on the day of the wedding were the most insightful, because they were the most genuinely enthusiastic, and most immune to the discourse happening around the wedding itself. They were so happy for Taylor and for Taylor's wedding. They were like, this is bringing up the mood of the city. Everyone is feeling amazing about this, and it's such a happy, incredible thing that is bringing the city together. That is certainly not how I perceived the event, but it felt to me like a really nice, albeit very, very rose-tinted glasses way of processing what was happening. I thought they were very sweet about it without being, you know, completely crazy.
The most interesting sentiment I heard a couple of different times was this expectation from loyal fans that this should be in some way more public than it is, that this is owed in some ways, which felt like teetering on the edge of a thing that feels increasingly common in fan relationships, which is that fans are aware to some extent that artists are taking advantage of their enthusiasm, but then they're thinking that on the back end, it's gonna benefit them at some point. And it's like, well, no, that's not how getting taken advantage of works.
On the other hand, she had her wedding in a concert venue, and there were performances. The idea that no one will ever get to see those performances except for the 1200 people who were in MSG feels almost cruel.
The thing that they expressed wanting, which is the Taylor Swift two-hour wedding spectacular streaming now on Disney Plus … that would genuinely stun me if that existed. I feel like we are probably gonna get snippets, like in Instagram carousels for a while, but I just don't think we're ever gonna have a full sense of all that went down.
Were there any guests who surprised you?
I felt really happy that Nikki Glaser was there, of all those sort of random celebs to rock up, just ‘cause they have sort of a weird past. Nikki Glaser made a joke about her which wound up in the Taylor doc from 2020, and Glaser apologized and was like, I actually feel really bad that I said this and I'm a fan. And Taylor was like, thanks for apologizing, and Glaser has in turn become a huge Swiftie. That’s the avatar for a lot of fans: someone who enthusiastically loves her, is sometimes kind of mean about her, but ultimately gets to enjoy this thing.
Anything you personally want to see from the wedding that Taylor is gatekeeping from her deserving fans?
I really need her to post the dress.
