In its happier times, the courtship and wedding between Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren often seemed like a fairytale come true. Although scandal erupted in the fall of 2009, and the couple has officially divorced, today would have been their six year wedding anniversary.
The two met in 2001 while Woods was competing in the British open. Nordegren, in the crowd, was working as an Au Pair to another golfer in the competition. In an interview with Sport Illustrated, Nordegren revealed that Woods originally asked her for a date through a friend of hers.
The two began dating, and in November of 2003, during a sunset walk, Woods presented his bride-to-be with a diamond engagement ring. The proposal occurred while they were on a safari vacation in South Africa, where they reportedly slept in sleeping bags under the stars that night.
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Then on October 5, 2004, the couple exchanged wedding rings under a pagoda adorned with 10,000 black roses in St. James, Barbados. The vows were spoken at sunset on the 19th hole of the Sandy Lane golf resort, where Woods had rented out all 110 rooms for the 150 guests in attendance that included Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and Bill Gates.
The groom was dressed in a beige suite, while the bride was another in a long list of celebrity brides that looked stunning in a Vera Wang Gown.
The champagne flowed freely at a reception held at the resort’s banquet hall, which was decorated with over 10,000 black and red roses, Guests were served caviar, flying fish, and a macaroni pie while entertained by the band Hootie and the Blowfish, before the couple made their departure for the honeymoon.
To ensure a relaxing vacation, the couple took a Caribbean cruise aboard Woods’s 155 foot, private yacht, aptly named Privacy, where the family would often live when Woods partook of any competitions on the Florida coast.
The couple had their first child, Sam, in 2007 and their second, Charlie in 2009. In the aftermath of a now legendary tale of lies and infidelity, the couple officially divorced in August of 2010. But although their marriage did not survive, we can still appreciate this once beautiful love story and lavish affair.