A Look At Sly Stone & Kathy Silva's 1974 Wedding — The First At Madison Square Garden

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Celebrity weddings can cause a lot of fuss depending on a multitude of factors, and location is one of the biggest. While some celebs opt for private yet extravagant destination weddings, others have more public ceremonies. And of course, the royal weddings are de facto public events, as some are televised. Still, no matter how you feel about rumors that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are getting married at Madison Square Garden, they actually are not the first people to get married there. That honor belongs to Sly Stone (of Sly & the Family Stone) and model and actor Kathy Silva. The wedding took place on June 5, 1974. Sly & the Family Stone were performing a concert there that night, so the wedding served somewhat as the opener for the famous group.

In fact, that's how Stone saw it, according to his memoir "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)." Stone further described the itinerary for the event, saying, "We'd have a ceremony just before the concert, right there on the stage. Then a concert, then a party afterward at the rooftop lounge of the Waldorf Astoria" (via People).

That plan went on without a hiccup apparently, with approximately 20,000 to 23,000 people there for the show also witnessing the wedding. The rooftop party was far smaller but still a glamorous event. Around 400 people showed up to celebrate Stone and Silva at the Starlight Roof, including celebrities such as Andy Warhol and Eddie Kendricks — the latter of whom performed at Madison Square Garden prior to the wedding ceremony and main show.

Everything about Sly Stone and Kathy Silva's wedding appears to have been very '70s in nature. The couple wore matching sparkly gold outfits and guest invitations emphasized wearing gold to the rooftop reception, which was a popular color during the decade. The gold aesthetic even made its way to the wedding cake, with a record of the same color on top. Stone explained in his aforementioned memoir that it was symbolic of being in the music industry, per Vogue.

Describing the festivities in "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)," Stone said, "The party was drinking and dancing and smoking and joking, the kind of thing you remember only from the pictures you see afterward" (via Vogue). TV host Geraldo Rivera reflected on the wedding and said, "There have been some flamboyant and elaborate weddings over the years, but I can't imagine one that would top this. ... It was really quite spectacular" (via New York Times).

Unfortunately, the relationship between Stone and Silva would not last very long following the wedding, with the couple breaking up less than a year afterward. The couple finalized their divorce in 1976. Somewhat controversially (at least for the time), Stone and Silva had one child, Sylvester Jr., in 1973, prior to getting married.