Security was tightened at the entrance to Hampton Island in Georgia on Saturday as workers began arriving early to prepare for Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck walk down the aisle at his plantation-style estate later that day.
Two security guards sat at the entrance to the island, checking IDS for anyone entering Affleck’s 87-acre property.
Once checked, they handed out white paper wristbands, as a police officer sat nearby in a car labeled Liberty County Sheriff.
Workers were seen arriving with suits hanging from their rear passenger-side window, along with a few trucks that arrived shortly after 11:30 a.m. They included a truck branded Savannah Vintage, a lighting and furniture company.
The pair was engaged in april.
They had already been engaged back in 2002but separated in 2004. Affleck, 50, went on to marry actress Jennifer Garner, with whom he has three children – Violet, 16, Seraphina, 13 and Samuel, 10 – and Lopez, 53, eventually married singer Marc Anthony, with whom she had twins, Emme and Max, 14.
A neighbor told the Post that preparations for the three-day wedding celebration had been going on since July. “It’s non-stop,” said the neighbor. “Essentially catering and equipment. They transported earth, tents, horses. Lots of horses.
“They were here a lot back then,” neighbor Richard Dasher, 49, said of the Hollywood couple. “They were coming in and going out.”
“I know they’ve been working on it for four months,” he said of the wedding, adding that he was “good friends” with a caretaker at the property.
A worker told the Post he had worked at the property since March. “Man, I worked my butt off on this property,” he said. “I cleaned up, cut trees, bushes, anything that blocked the view of the lake and the house.”
Dasher told the Post that a parade of unmarked trucks and vans drove up to the property over the past week.
“It’s okay,” said another neighbor, who did not want to be identified. “They are just people like us. I love them and their job. They’re good at what they do but I’m not impressed. I know they did a lot of cleaning and rented side-by-sides.
The neighbor said her mother met Affleck about 15 years ago.
“She was dazzled. She said, ‘Hey, how are you?’ He said, ‘I’m fine and you?’
Riceboro resident Joey Norris said he would like to meet Lopez.
“They already tried once, didn’t they?” Fall in love. Better luck this time.