'Tis the season for celebrity weddings. From Vanessa Minnillo and Nick Lachey to Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries, A-list weddings can mean a major payday for celebs taking the plunge. We're talking up to $1 million for television rights, between $250,000 and $2 million in photo sales and the latest money maker -- wedding product placement, which can net a couple millions if done well. But making money on a marriage is all about timing and right now the market for the celebrity wedding is saturated. Celebs looking to make bank by tying the knot would be wise to wait until next year when the market for celebrity weddings begins to dry up. So far this summer we have seen country crooners Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert, R&B songstress Monica and supermodel Kate Moss all tie the knot. Over the weekend Nick Lachey and Vanessa Minnillo made it official in a secret ceremony on a tropical island -- details of which have been largely kept under wraps, likely due to a deal the couple negotiated to air the wedding on a TLC special. Coming soon, Jessica Simpson and Kim Kardashian (and maybe Brad and Angie) will be competing for top dollar deals for what are expected to be their over-the-top nuptials. “Also seriously hurting those wanting to get the biggest bang for their buck, so to speak, on their wedding day is the fact that the grandest and most lavish wedding many of us have ever seen, the royal wedding, was just three months ago," HollywoodLIfe Senior Editor, Chris Spargo explained. "Everything looks almost simple and plain in comparison to the spectacle that was Kate and Prince William's wedding. Beyond seeing the gown I don't think anyone cares much about these new weddings.” And even though weddings sell magazines and drive traffic to websites, there is only so much a mag or a site can spend in a quarter on wedding photos. With so many weddings in the works, everyone is getting a smaller slice of the pie. “After two royal weddings, Kate Moss' supermodel ceremony, the marriage of her ex-husband and Kim Kardashian's upcoming nuptials, I think Jessica Simpson is going to become the big loser in these wedding crazed times,” Spargo added. One magazine editor told me they could have spent about $1 million on Kim Kardashian's wedding photos if the market hadn’t gotten so saturated. Now Kardashian will probably get about half that -- $500,000 from an outlet paying exclusive rights to her snapshots. Of course, licensing rights for those photos around the globe will surely multiply that number. Of course, this market saturation is for a very particular tier of celebrity. For the biggest names, magazines will always find the right amount of money to obtain exclusive pictures. “If Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux and Angelina and Brad all got married in the same summer people would pay," Us Weekly Photo Editor, Peter Grossman said. "I think the market for anyone below that is depressed with so many weddings. It’s like in baseball when you have a year with a lot of free agents. The superstars will still always get their money.” At the end of the day, none of the perks -- the free stretch Hummers, the bling, the photo paychecks -- should matter when it comes to promising to stand by your partner no matter what. “Just so long as they realize the relationship and the marriage is far more important than just that one day or any cash they can rake in, these celebrity brides will be fine,” says Cooper Lawrence, Entertainment Reporter from the "Scott & Todd Show" on PLJ and Fox's "Dish Nation."
But with millions on the line, we can see how signing a marriage license can be just as important as signing over your big day to the highest bidder.
