A millionaire tech entrepreneur and his former Miss Ireland bride have been accused of destroying the base of a prominent natural monument in Utah after leaving behind mountains of trash from their lavish desert wedding, a local council member claimed.
According to SFGate, Silicon Valley investor Andrew Chen and his new wife Emma Waldron, a former beauty queen who now runs an AI startup, allegedly left a mess at Utah’s scenic Castleton Tower landmark after their wedding in September.
The outlet said the California couple has since attempted to delete evidence of the wedding from the internet.
Images from the aftermath of the wedding reportedly show piles of furniture and trash bags strewn across the base of the landmark, while tire tracks were also etched into the destroyed vegetation.
Pictures from the aftermath of the wedding showed the picturesque venue was covered in wedding decorations, furniture and rubbish
Officials reportedly gave permission for the event as long as it was just a “simple ceremony with a small white tent.”
The bride, Emma Waldron, won Miss Ireland in 2010 and has since launched a successful career in technology and currently runs an artificial intelligence startup
Tech entrepreneur Andrew Chen was head of Uber’s Rider Growth division and now works as a venture capital investor in video games and the Metaverse
The day after the wedding on September 3, Castle Valley councilor Pamela Griffin reportedly tripped over the mess while leaving her cottage, which left her so angry that she was shaking.
She said she saw movers from a California rental company packing up some furniture and wedding supplies, adding that the moving truck also left deep tire tracks.
When she returned the next day, Gibson told outlets that trash bags filled with broken glass and food were still scattered around the area and reportedly shared images of the aftermath.
It was reportedly left to Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rangers to clear the area later.
The couple now appears to have changed their social media settings to private. But a deleted tweet that Chen allegedly sent to his 273,000 followers said: “At the ceremony we had to say long vows, we had a beautiful dinner and then some dancing!”
He added that the couple then flew to Japan for their honeymoon.
According to an email from a BLM official to Gibson viewed by SFGate, the couple received permission to hold the event at the base of the landmark as long as it was a “simple ceremony with a small white tent.”
A video shared on social media purporting to be from the wedding shows that the event appeared to be larger, with at least two tents and long tables. It is unclear how many people were present.
A Castle Valley council meeting on Sept. 20 resulted in Gibson and Castle Valley Mayor Jazmine Duncan writing to the Bureau of Land Management to complain about the couple’s permission to go ahead with the wedding.
The letter claims that when the couple got the green light, they failed to mention that they would use a generator, hire a caterer with tables and chairs and build a 24-foot-long cabana.
The letter went on to say they lined the street with glass candles and used toilet service, which was allegedly left behind days after the service.
In a now-deleted social media post, Chen said his wedding was marked by a “beautiful dinner and some dancing” before he and Waldron flew to Japan
The couple’s wedding, dubbed a “Waldron/Chen extravaganza” by officials, has led to moves to ban events at the Utah landmark
After her success as a beauty queen, Waldron now runs Spuddie, an AI company that plans to launch a digital “Best Bud” to “take care of your emotional and intellectual nourishment using artificial intelligence.”
Chen is a video game and metaverse investor for venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and his company author page describes him as a “prolific author and leading voice in mobile, metrics, and user growth.”
Before joining the venture capital firm, Chen led Uber’s Rider Growth division.
His new bride won the Miss Ireland pageant in 2010 and has since immersed herself in the world of Silicon Valley and as head of the AI startup “Spuddie”.
The company will release a digital “Best Bud” that uses artificial intelligence to “take care of your emotional and intellectual nourishment.”
She was also the founder of the WiLDE platform, which was reportedly backed by several billionaires and business leaders, including former Apple CEOs John Sculley and Eric Schmidt.
Attempts to reach Chen or Waldron for comment were unsuccessful.
Waldron pictured at the VIP Style Awards at The Marker Hotel in Dublin, Ireland in April 2014
Officials used the wedding as an example to argue to the BLM department that all future events at the base of Castleton Tower should be banned, warning that another wedding could “easily escalate into a Waldron/Chen extravaganza.” .”
“It was a commercial event – certainly small by LA standards, but still it shouldn’t have happened,” Gibson said later. “And they’re not responsible, that’s what really pisses me off.”
She continued: “It’s been basically four days where the public hasn’t been able to enjoy what they should be enjoying because these people have no qualms about misrepresenting something just so they can celebrate their pretty little wedding.”
The councilor said she was still finding rubbish and broken glass at the site two months later, ruining the landscape that is popular with hikers and photographers.
The BLM department added that it would continue to pursue the pair “in collaboration with BLM law enforcement,” but did not immediately respond to a request for further details when contacted by .