As Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez prepare to say “yes” for the second time, all eyes are on Affleck’s gorgeous Georgia mansion, which he bought in 2003 for $7.1 million.
While Affleck recently put the sprawling 87-acre property up for sale for $8.9 million, he eventually decided to keep the home and use it for a glamorous wedding ceremony with new beau Lopez.
The two will have their wedding ceremony on Saturday, a whopping $400,000 affair that took months of preparation, including installing dance floors and shipping glassware, linens and furniture.
The home is a mock plantation style mansion in Riceboro, Georgia overlooking the North Newport River on the private Hampton Island.
The “Big House” is the jewel of the property and features 6,000 square feet of space, four bedrooms, five bathrooms and balconies overlooking the swampy river.
The main house “Big House” is the heart of the property and has 6,000 square meters of space
The large home features four bedrooms and balconies overlooking the nearby North Newport River
The mansion has five bathrooms and is equipped with special pine wood floors
It also has 15 foot ceilings and romantic arched fireplaces dotted around the grounds
The mansion sits on 4,000 pristine acres of Hampton Island approximately 35 miles south of Savannah, Georgia
Lopez and Affleck were recently secretly married at the Little White Chapel in Las Vegas, an event they even kept a secret from some close friends and family members
Surrounded by century-old oak trees, the mansion features pine floors, 15-foot ceilings, and romantic arched fireplaces dotted throughout the grounds.
The complex also includes two other structures known as Summer Cottage and Oyster House.
A cozy home down a path from the Big House, the screened-in Summer Cottage features exposed brick interiors, sloping ceilings, a fireplace, and a metal roof.
The final building on Affleck’s lot is the Oyster House, a massive residence that rivals the main house in terms of size and amenities.
Likely where the wedding reception will take place, the 10,000-square-foot Oyster House features three main suites plus five other bedrooms with bunk beds “salvaged from seagoing vessels.”
Lopez is expected to adorn a Ralph Lauren gown, and a white walkway has been created from the back porch of the Great House down to the waterfront where a marquee has been installed.
When Affleck first bought the property in 2003, he reportedly hoped to build a chapel on the site, but he and Lopez ended their original relationship shortly thereafter in 2004.
The couple have already had some unplanned hiccups preparing for the wedding, including when Affleck’s mother, Christopher Anne Boldt, fell off the dock and was hospitalized with an arm injury.
The Oyster House serves as the guest house for the property and features an outdoor pool and space for over twenty guests
The Oyster House has several rooms furnished with bunk beds “salvaged from seagoing vessels”.
The Oyster House is expected to host the wedding reception
Another image shows a quaint wooden outhouse being set up for part of Bennifer’s celebrations
Visitors must obtain permission from an islander before crossing the bridge that provides access to the exclusive enclave
An overview of the wedding preparations shows the sprawling, forested island full of trucks and tents
The property originally housed a ‘thriving’ rice plantation called Hampton Pastures and was owned by Roswell King.
The plantation was worked by slaves and Creek Indians and the property dates from before the Civil War.
In fact, the living quarters for the plantation’s slaves were on the same island where the house is located, and there is an unmarked slave graveyard somewhere on the property.
Campers at a nearby Boy Scout camp have even found pottery made by Creek Indians on the site.
Affleck reportedly first fell in love with the Georgia area after filming the 1999 film Forces of Nature there.
The beautiful natural landscape surrounding the island is home to hundreds of species of animals, including alligators, wild boar, deer, and bobcats.
But according to an inside source, there were certain things that didn’t meet Lopez’s exacting standards, most notably the network of potholed roads that wind around the property from the Big House to the Farmhouse and the four-mile stretch to the special security gates at the end of the street installed.
Trucks of Georgia clay and lime have been piled up for the last two months to smooth and level all the roads.
But torrential rain in recent nights has wiped out weeks’ work, with Lopez today giving workers a 6pm Friday deadline to shore up and refill potholes that have reopened.
Last Saturday, devotees brought half a dozen piebald horses to the enclave known as the Hampton Island Preserve. The animals are now housed in the $3 million stable complex built by Affleck.
They are there for every guest who wants to take part in a trail ride. Those who prefer four-wheel transportation are treated to an ATV tour of the property — an activity that Affleck found particularly fun, as he admitted to a source that he’d never ridden an ATV before.
During the day, when summer storms permit, guests of Affleck and Lopez can take a short buggy ride from the property to the golf course.
An aerial view conveys the extent of the wedding preparations currently underway – and the extraordinarily picturesque setting