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As Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez prepare for their second wedding, all eyes are on Affleck’s Georgia estate, which he purchased in 2003 for $7.1 million.
While Affleck recently put the expansive 87-acre property on the market for $8.9 million, he finally decided to keep the mansion and utilize it for his wedding to Lopez.
Saturday will mark the couple’s $400,000 wedding ceremony, which required months of planning, including the installation of dancefloors and the shipment of glassware, linens, and furniture.
The 2000-built house in Riceboro, Georgia is a replica plantation estate overlooking the North Newport River on the exclusive Hampton Island.
The main “big house” mansion is the property’s crowning glory, with 6,000 square feet of space, four bedrooms, five bathrooms, and balconies overlooking the marshy river. The mansion is surrounded by centuries-old live oak trees and features pinewood flooring, 15-foot ceilings, and numerous lovely fireplaces with arched openings.
The property also contains two other buildings known as the Summer Cottage and the Oyster House.
The Summer Cottage is a small house with exposed brick interiors, pitched ceilings, a fireplace, and a metal roof, situated along a path from the Main House.
The final construction on Affleck’s property is the Oyster House, a gigantic dwelling that is comparable in size and facilities to the main home.
The 10,000-square-foot Oyster House, which features three principal suites and five other bedrooms with bunk beds’salvaged from marine vessels,’ would most likely serve as the venue for the wedding reception.
Lopez is anticipated to wear a Ralph Lauren outfit, and a white walkway has been laid from the Big House’s rear veranda to the water, where a marquee has been erected.
When Affleck purchased the property in 2003, he reportedly intended to construct a chapel on the grounds. However, he and Lopez dissolved their relationship in 2004.
Affleck’s mother, Christopher Anne Boldt, fell from the pier and was brought to the hospital with an arm injury, among other unanticipated problems with the wedding preparations. Originally, Hampton Pastures was the site of a large rice plantation owned by Roswell King.
Prior to the Civil War, slaves and Creek Indians worked on the plantation, which dates back to before the war.
In truth, the slaves’ living quarters were placed on the same island as the house, and there is an unmarked slave graveyard somewhere on the site.
Even on the grounds of a nearby Boy Scouts camp, campers have discovered Creek Indian pottery.
After filming the 1999 film “Forces of Nature” in Georgia, Affleck apparently fell in love with the surrounding environment.
Hundreds of species of wildlife, including alligators, wild boars, deer, and bobcats, inhabit the island’s picturesque natural environment.
But, according to an insider, there were a few items that did not meet Lopez’s rigorous requirements, including the network of potholed roads that loop around the property from the Big House to the Farmhouse and down the four-mile stretch to the specially constructed security gates at the road’s end.
All roads have been resurfaced and graded for the previous two months with Georgia clay and lime transported in by truck.
But severe rains over the previous two nights have undone the work of weeks, and Lopez has given workers until Friday at 6 p.m. to patch and fill newly formed potholes.
On Saturday, six piebald horses were transported in trailers to the enclave known as Hampton Island Preserve. The animals are currently housed in Affleck’s $3 million stable building.
They are available for any guest that desires a trail ride. Those who prefer four-wheeled mobility will be treated to an ATV tour of the site, an activity that Ben Affleck found particularly entertaining despite having never actually been on an ATV.
Guests of Affleck and Lopez can take a short buggy ride from their accommodations to the golf course during the day, if summer storms permit.