Eddie & Nicole's wedding album - marriage of film star Eddie Murphy to Nicole Mitchell - Cover Story

Ebony, May, 1993 by Walter Leavy

With just a little bit more than an hour before the big moment, Eddie Murphy, readying himself in the 18th floor Presidential Suite, is the perfect picture of calm. No nervous shaking hands. No beads of perspiration on his forehead. No thoughts of changing his mind. No frantic last-minute preparations.

Meanwhile, 13 floors below in the 3,000-a-night Vanderbilt Suite, the picture is totally different. With so many people going in and out--bridesmaids, florists, photographers, relatives--the suite looks like a miniature slice of Grand Central Station. Surrounding Nicole Mitchell are a hairstylist, a makeup artist, a hotel security guard, even her crying, 6-month-old son Myles--all vying for her attention at the same time.

And everything is moving right along to the beat of blaring, tape-recorded music, which ironically includes the hit tune "Don't Walk Away (Boy)" by jade. "I feel OK right now," the bride-to-be says, while makeup is being applied to her cheeks, "but I'm going to be so nervous and jittery when I put that dress on."

That dress is a breathtaking, low-cut, off-the-shoulder, silk and satin, white wedding gown with rosettes, featuring French Alencon lace. After positioning the 12-foot-long Cathedral train and adjusting the matching Cathedral tulle veil (edged in Belgian embroidery and decorated with irridescent Austrian crystals and pearls), she was ready.

Finally--five years and two children later--the much-talked-about moment had arrived. As a star-studded crowd of 500, including Eddie and Nicole's children, waited with anticipation in the white satin-decorated Grand Ballroom at New York's The Plaza hotel, the smiling 5-foot-9, hazel-eyed model took her first steps down the aisle, ignoring tradition and entering to her husband-to-be's tune "Don't Give Up On Love" from his Love's Alright album.

Murphy had already made his dramatic and surprising entrance to the roar of laughter. Showing that his sense of humor wasn't lost in the seriousness of the occasion, the comic had entered wearing dark glasses and doing his best Stevie Wonder impersonation.

As Nicole continued down the aisle on the arm of her father, Eddie Mitchell, the crowd burst into spontaneous applause until she reached the altar for the beginning of the nondenominational ceremony.

Minutes later, Eddie had the crowd roaring again. As if following a director's cue, when the Rev. Calvin Butts of Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church asked if anyone knew any reason why the two shouldn't be married, Murphy spun around and glared at the audience. Even if someone had spoken up, it's doubtful that he or she would have been heard over the uproarious laughter.

Comedy aside, for many of those in the audience like Donald Trump, the 16-minute, double-ring ceremony was "one of the most elegant, glamorous and classy weddings" they had ever witnessed.

"It was important for me to get married now because I was in love, and I had found someone who loved me. And we fit," Murphy said. "Nicole is intelligent, she's sweet, she's fine, she's a good mother, and she has a good sense of humor. There wasn't just one single thing that attracted me to her; she has a lot of positive attributes."

Not surprisingly, this long-awaited wedding took on all the characteristics of a Hollywood movie premiere, complete with a huge, screaming throng of fans outside the hotel. Inside, though, the ceremony was everything that little girls dream about when they envision their own wedding day. It was beautiful; it was sentimental; and it was romantic. When Rev. Butts pronounced the couple husband and wife at exactly 8:10 p.m. EST), Eddie planted a series of light kisses on his wife and enveloped her in a long embrace.

Then, unexpectedly, he did something that brought tears to the eyes of many in the audience. Before taking a single step from the altar, the superstar looked down at his 3-year-old daughter Bria (who was serving as the head flower girl), scooped her up into his arms, and the trio strolled down the aisle to such a thunderous ovation it almost drowned out Whitney Houston's version of the hit song "I'm Every Woman."

"This [wedding] was like a fantasy come true, and there was so much electricity surrounding it," says Arsenio Hall, one of Murphy's closest friends. "I was with Eddie on the night he met Nicole, and I'm so happy because this restores my faith in what the concept of love is really all about."

For Eddie, who for years had been one of Hollywood's most flamboyant and unrestrained playboys, the concept of love was nothing more than parading around with one beautiful woman after another. Then he met Nicole at an NAACP Image Awards show and "Party All The Time" Eddie was hit with something that was totally new to him--something he just couldn't ignore. "The day I laid eyes on Nicole I knew she would be my wife," says Murphy, still holding Bria while taking a break during the formal photo session of the bridal party. "That's vibe; it wasn't aesthetic. It took this long because I wanted to be sure about everything, and Nicole had to be sure. I'm a romantic, but I'm a realist, too. We just did everything slowly."