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Empire State Building lights up for Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding

▶ Watch Video: Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce celebrate wedding at Madison Square Garden

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce celebrated their wedding at Madison Square Garden on Friday, and a nearby New York City landmark lit up to celebrate the occasion.

The Empire State Building was shining in light blue Friday night. Its website said it was “in celebration of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding at Madison Square Garden.”

On X, they posted, “Her something blue,” referencing the traditional wedding rhyme “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.”

Outside the wedding venue itself, jumbotrons displayed the words, “JUST&T MARRIED!”

People watch giant screens showing the message "JUST&T MARRIED!" (T&T for Taylor and Travis) outside Madison Square Garden, the venue for the wedding celebrations of pop singer Taylor Swift and pro-athlete Travis Kelce, in New York City on July 3, 2026.
Giant screens display the message “JUST&T MARRIED!” (T&T for Taylor and Travis) outside Madison Square Garden.

CHARLY TRIBALLEAU /AFP via Getty Images

The New York City Police Department had the streets around Madison Square Garden on lockdown all day with closures, barricades and extra officers, but that didn’t stop fans from flocking to the area, trying to sneak a peek at the activity.

“I couldn’t get tickets for the Eras Tour, so this is the closest I’ve been,” said Chloe Stanley, a tourist from the United Kingdom.

Lindsay Perrin and her children traveled from Indianapolis for the occasion.

“We drove 12 hours to be here for the celebrations,” she said. “This is our royal wedding and just a moment that we didn’t want to miss.”

Perrin said the trip was her idea, not her children’s.

“These kids, they might not appreciate it now in the 100-degree heat,” she said, “but I feel like they’ll be like, ‘We were outside of Madison Square Garden during Taylor’s wedding’ and that’s something that they’ll be talking about for years to come.”

They didn’t even travel the farthest. Hanna Daidal flew in from Europe after booking the tickets just last week.

“It was last minute on Friday. I just knew that Taylor Swift was getting married, and on Sunday, I was taking the flight to here,” she said.

The wedding reception is expected to last all night and continue into the early hours of Saturday morning, sources told CBS News.

Kennedy Center board votes to restore Trump’s name on building

The Kennedy Center's board of trustees voted Thursday to add President Trump's name to the facade of the performing arts center, more than two months after a judge ordered its removal, according to a House Democrat who sits on the center's board.  The board — which Mr. Trump filled with his allies — chose to add the phrase "Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump" to the end of the center's formal name, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio and her lawyers said in a statement. Beatty said the board also voted to close the center for two years. Mr. Trump phoned in for part of the virtual board meeting, according to two people familiar with the matter. The vote marks a second attempt to put the president's name on the outside of the building, after U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled in May that a decision to rename the center after both Kennedy and Mr. Trump violated the federal law that created the organization. Cooper also blocked the center from moving forward with a plan to close until 2028 for renovations, though the cultural institution had said it was still considering a partial or full closure.Cooper issued his order in response to a lawsuit from Beatty. On Thursday, the congresswoman called the latest move "a transparent effort to circumvent the Court's ruling, and flies in the face of the statutes that Congress passed." "Today's vote is more of the same, and a show of blatant disrespect to the courts," two of Beatty's attorneys, Norm Eisen and Nathaniel Zelinsky, wrote in the statement. "The court already ruled against the board when it bowed to Trump's demands. Now, the defendants must answer for their actions—again—in court." The proposal to put the president's name on the outside of the building was not on the formal agenda for the meeting and was raised toward the end, a person familiar with the gathering said. Democratic board members, including Beatty, complained that the proposal wasn't presented in writing ahead of a vote, the person said.Mr. Trump spoke toward the end of Thursday's board meeting, telling members he listened to the duration of the more than two-hour session, one person familiar with the meeting told CBS News. The president noted that other D.C.-area renovation projects backed by his administration were not taxpayer-funded, and added at one point that the Kennedy Center garage was "falling apart," the person said.White House spokesperson Liz Huston said: "Under President Trump's bold leadership, the Kennedy Center is on its way to becoming the finest cultural institution anywhere in the world." The White House did not have any immediate comment on the president's participation in the board meeting.CBS News has reached out to the Kennedy Center for comment. Since returning to office last year, the president has sought to put his stamp on the Kennedy Center, replacing board members with longtime supporters who elected him chair of the organization. The changes to the center have drawn backlash from performers and congressional Democrats, leading some artists to cancel their appearances. Then, late last year, the board voted to rename the organization as "The John F. Kennedy and The Donald J. Trump Memorial Center for the Performing Arts," which the center framed as a way of recognizing Mr. Trump's efforts to revamp the center. The president's name was then placed above Kennedy's name on the building's stone facade. Workers erect scaffolding in front of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after a judge ordered President Trump's name be removed, on June 12, 2026. AP Photo/Rahmat Gul The board also voted in March to shut down for two years, arguing the building was in need of sweeping renovations. Beatty sued over the changes, arguing the board doesn't have the authority to temporarily shutter the Kennedy Center or change its name without permission from Congress. Her lawyers noted that the center's name — and its role as a memorial to Kennedy — are enshrined in federal law, and the board is legally required to ensure that "no additional memorials or plaques" are installed on the site. Cooper, an Obama-appointed judge, sided with Beatty in late May, ruling: "Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it." He also said the decision to shut down all operations during the center's renovations was based on "an insufficient, one-sided presentation of information," and the board "neglected to consider the full range of its statutory obligations and potential adverse consequences of closure." The metallic letters that spelled out Mr. Trump's name were then removed from the building overnight on June 13, after an appeals court declined to step in at the last minute and allow the name to stay up. Two months later, the scaffolding and tarp that were placed in front of the building to remove the lettering are still up.  Mr. Trump responded to Cooper's ruling by sharply criticizing the judge — arguing he should be impeached — and vowing to cut off his involvement with the Kennedy Center. "So now, the Kennedy Center will collapse, both structurally and financially," the president wrote on Truth Social in May.
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