Cristiano Ronaldo Chose a Surprisingly Ordinary Place to Get Married

Cristiano Ronaldo has spent much of his life in places most people can only dream of visiting. For his wedding, he didn't need one of them.

Ronaldo and longtime partner Georgina Rodríguez officially became husband and wife in Portugal on Aug. 11, but there was no sprawling ballroom or extravagant destination behind their vows. Instead, one of the world's most recognizable athletes got married in the living room of the home he shares with Rodríguez and their children.

For a couple whose life can look larger than life from the outside, the reason was remarkably simple.

They wanted the moment to happen in the place where their life actually happens.

Georgina Rodríguez Wanted Their Children to Remember One Table

Rodríguez opened up about the deeply personal decision in an Aug. 16 interview with Vogue, revealing that the couple specifically chose the living room because it is the center of their family's everyday life.

“We’ve chosen to do it in the living room of our house here,” Rodríguez told the outlet, “where we have breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and where we live the reality of our lives.”

But it was what she said next that made the choice especially meaningful.

“In 30 years’ time I want the children to think, ‘Something wonderful happened at this table—the wedding vows of our parents.’”

The setting could hardly have been further removed from the wedding Rodríguez once pictured for herself.

As a little girl, she dreamed big. Really big.

“When I was a little girl, I dreamt of the biggest castle, the biggest carriage, the longest dress [and] a crown full of diamonds,” she told Vogue.

Years later, with the means to make virtually any version of that childhood fantasy happen, Rodríguez realized she wanted something else entirely.

“Now I’m saying: No. I want something intimate, with my partner and our children, at home.”

For Ronaldo and Rodríguez, privacy has become a luxury of its own. Their relationship has unfolded alongside Ronaldo's extraordinary level of fame, but their wedding wasn't designed as another spectacle.

It was designed as a family memory.

Georgina Rodríguez Was Overcome With Emotion After the Wedding

The intimate ceremony wasn't the only deeply personal part of the day.

After exchanging vows, Ronaldo and Rodríguez traveled with their family to Fátima, where they attended Mass following a blessing.

Rodríguez told Vogue that she had visited Fátima before, but entering the Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows hit her differently this time.

“I needed nothing more: my husband, my children, our home, our faith, and our love,” she recalled.

She described the ceremony itself in equally simple terms.

“It was exactly as I’d imagined it,” Rodríguez said. “Intimate, full of love, and with our family in the most important starring role. I couldn’t hold back the tears.”

There is another celebration still to come. Rodríguez said the couple plans to eventually hold a larger wedding celebration with family and friends.

But the vows themselves happened somewhere no luxury venue could replicate. At home, around the same table their children will grow up remembering.

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