Selena Gomez Just Celebrated One Year of Marriage to Benny Blanco, and the Year-Old Cake Story Is the Best Part

The Sweet Tributes That Started the Day

One year ago, Selena Gomez walked down the aisle in Santa Barbara and married the man she has called the love of her life. On Sunday, September 27, the couple hit their first wedding anniversary, and they celebrated it exactly the way you would expect: with sweet, low-key tributes shared online.

Gomez, 34, marked the occasion on her Instagram Stories with a photo of herself and Blanco from their wedding reception. Both were glowing in their custom Ralph Lauren looks, smiling and embracing as the night unfolded around them. Over the image she wrote a simple caption: “Happy anniversary my love. I love you to the moon and back.”

Blanco shared a pair of stories of his own, and his contribution was arguably the funniest celebrity anniversary post of the year. First came a photo of a slice of white wedding cake, preserved from their big day, sitting on a pink plate decorated with the words “Love is Love.” His caption was perfect: “year old cake never tasted so good.”

Then came a walk down memory lane: a snapshot from their nuptials showing Gomez beaming in one of her custom bridal gowns next to her new husband, set to “Be My Baby” by The Ronettes. His message over the photo read, “1 year down… forever to go…”

The Year-Old Cake Came With a Hilarious Catch

There is a long tradition of couples eating a piece of their wedding cake on their first anniversary, but Blanco had already warned everyone this one might not be for the faint of heart. Speaking before the big day, he revealed a detail from the wedding that is almost too good to be true: Martin Short ate part of the cake before they ever got to save it.

“The full cake isn’t there because Marty ate part of the cake before we were supposed to do it,” Blanco said, referring to Gomez’s Only Murders in the Building co-star and close friend. “Then they had to put it back together.”

The story gets better. Blanco explained that the couple had skipped a grand multi-tier wedding cake in favor of a modest “little cake in a corner” at their reception. Short apparently mistook it for a decoration.

“So I guess Marty thought it was this little prop cake, so he just ate it with his hand, and they had to put it back together,” Blanco recalled.

Six slices survived, and Blanco joked he was hoping this would be a one-time thing. “I hope you only have to eat it for the first year. I hope that’s the only tradition. I don’t want to be eating this thing on year six. I didn’t even wrap it correctly. It’s probably furry now.”

A Low-Key Anniversary After a Whirlwind Year

Anyone expecting an extravagant anniversary bash was out of luck. Blanco had telegraphed the plan weeks earlier, telling reporters the couple wanted to keep things simple after months of constant travel.

“We wanted to just be chill. We’ve been traveling so much. We’ve been all over,” he said. “I haven’t been in my own bed in four months. And we’re, like, chillers. We want to be chill. I don’t know. Maybe we’ll watch our speeches or something like that.”

Watching their wedding speeches at home. If that does not tell you everything about these two, nothing will.

Inside the Santa Barbara Wedding

The celebration one year ago took place on September 27, 2025, at Sea Crest Nursery, a tree-filled 17-acre private estate in Santa Barbara, California. More than 150 guests gathered for what a source told People at the time was a night full of love.

“There was so much love in the room,” the insider said. “The ceremony moved guests to tears. They wrote their own vows, which were both funny and sentimental.”

The reception, by all accounts, was a party to remember. “At the reception, everyone was letting loose and celebrating them well into the night. The vibe was so much fun,” the source added. “The newlyweds were glowing all night and couldn’t stop smiling.”

The guest list read like a who’s who of Hollywood. Taylor Swift and her fiance Travis Kelce were there, along with Gomez’s Only Murders in the Building co-stars Martin Short, Steve Martin and Ashley Park. Cara Delevingne, Ed Sheeran, Paris Hilton and Paul Rudd rounded out the famous faces. Meryl Streep had reportedly been invited but had to withdraw at the last moment, according to the Daily Mail.

Privacy was paramount all weekend. Guests stayed at the luxurious El Encanto hotel in Santa Barbara, and the wedding itself was so tightly guarded that attendees were reportedly driven to the venue without knowing their destination in advance. The rehearsal dinner took place the night before, on September 26.

Gomez’s look for the day became one of the most talked about wedding moments of 2025: custom Ralph Lauren gowns paired with Tiffany & Co. jewels, classic and elegant down to the last detail.

Still in the Honeymoon Stage

Ahead of their first anniversary, Gomez spoke to People for a September 2026 cover story and revealed the couple is “still in the honeymoon stage.” After everything they have been through, the words carry real weight.

Their story started in the studio. Blanco recently told The Times that he and Gomez first met when she was in her late teens and they worked on music together. They reconnected in the studio in 2023, and what was supposed to be a simple dinner turned into something neither expected. He thought she wanted him to set her up with one of his friends. She had a crush on him.

He proposed after 18 months of dating with a five to eight carat marquise-cut diamond. Gomez announced the engagement in December 2024 with photos captioned “forever begins now.” This March, they released a collaborative album, “I Said I Love You First,” a musical love letter to their relationship.

Blanco has also painted a picture of a surprisingly normal home life for one of pop music’s most famous couples. He cooks her dinner, steak with mashed potatoes and creamed spinach. They play Scrabble. He told The Times his wife reminds him of his mother: quiet, observant, someone who never wants to be the center of attention, even though she inevitably becomes it.

What Comes Next

If Gomez’s recent comments are any indication, the next chapter could be a big one. The singer has opened up about her hopes of becoming a mother someday, and she spoke about it just days before the anniversary, adding a deeply personal layer to the milestone.

For now, the couple seems content to live in the moment. One year of marriage, six slices of cake left, and a lifetime ahead of them. As Blanco put it: “1 year down… forever to go…”

More celebrity weddings to love

Relive Emma Roberts’ intimate wedding photos with Cody John, read about Tobey Maguire officiating his ex-wife’s Hawaii wedding, and catch up on Rob Lowe’s son Matthew’s star-studded Santa Barbara wedding.

Sources: People, OK Magazine.