Michael Gove and Sir Michael Caine will be among the guests but David Cameron and George Osborne will be conspicuous by their absence at the wedding event of the year for the British media and political elite.  Rupert Murdoch, 84, will exchange vows with Jerry Hall, 59, on Saturday in a ceremony at St Bride’s church, just off Fleet Street in central London. It will come a day after the two were formally wed at a low-key civil ceremony in a register office.  They were legally betrothed in a small civil ceremony on Friday afternoon, with Murdoch declaring himself the “happiest man in the world” to his 744,000 Twitter followers.  Wearing a dark blue suit to match Hall’s understated blue dress, he also vowed to stay off social media for 10 days, something that may prove a challenge to the tycoon who has spent the past few months tweeting about the US presidential election.  No more tweets for ten days or ever! Feel like the luckiest AND happiest man in world.  The ceremony took place at Spencer House in central London, the 18th-century aristocratic home of Earl Spencer, ancestor of Princess Diana, with an informal wedding breakfast at nearby Scott’s.  Witnesses to the marriage were Murdoch’s son Lachlan and Hall’s best friend Suzanne Wyman, the wife of Rolling Stone Bill Wyman.  The wedding ceremony scheduled for Saturday morning will be a much more stylish affair but also places Murdoch back at the heart of the spiritual home of the newspaper industry, St Bride’s church.  The former BBC executive Alan Yentob, a longstanding friend of Hall’s, is a confirmed guest, and there is speculation that there will be a place on a top pew for Murdoch loyalist Boris Johnson. If the MP attends, it will give them an opportunity to discuss their shared interest in Brexit.  The bride, who has been showing off her $4m (£2.8m), 20-carat marquise-cut diamond engagement ring, is expected to wear a floor-length strapless gown by the British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood.  Canon Alison Joyce will officiate at the church event, assisted by Fr Jonathan Morris from New York, who has done some work for Murdoch’s Fox News.  It is Murdoch’s fourth marriage and technically Hall’s first, after her 1992 Bali wedding to Mick Jagger was deemed legally void following an acrimonious high court battle. Murdoch and Hall met last summer and rapidly established a strong chemistry.  About 100 people are expected to attend, including Murdoch’s niece Penny Fowler, who introduced the couple; Rebekah Brooks, recently restored to the job of News UK chief executive, and her husband, Charlie Brooks; plus Robert Thomson, former editor of the Times and now chief executive of News Corporation, and his wife, Ping.  Tony Blair will not be there. The former prime minister was once a close friend of Murdoch’s and is godfather to his daughter Grace, but the two fell out after Blair made a solo visit to see Murdoch’s previous wife Wendi Deng at their California ranch two years ago.  Murdoch shows no sign of wedding nerves. On Friday it seemed to be business as usual as he continued to tweet about his favourite current subjects, the schisms in the Republican and Tory parties.  He took a pop at the US statistician Nate Silver, who correctly called the last presidential election, saying Silver had “not such [a] good prediction record these days”. On Thursday night he took a swipe at the UK government for making “obviously false claims aimed at scaring voters” in the EU referendum debate.  Consider comparative primary turnouts for Republicans and Democrats. @natesilver not such good prediction record these days.  UK Brexit campaign gathers force as government makes obviously false claims aimed at scaring voters. Early days yet.  The former News of the World editor Piers Morgan – once described by Murdoch as having “balls bigger than his brains” – is unlikely to be at the event but wished his former boss well. “Never seen him look so happy,” he declared on Twitter.  I'd like to wish my ex boss @rupertmurdoch all the best for his marriage to Jerry Hall tomorrow. Never seen him look so happy.  In the top pews will be the 10 offspring Murdoch and Hall have between them, all of whom will have an official role in the ceremony.  Hall has four children from her relationship with Jagger – Lizzy, 32, James, 30, Georgia May, 24, and Gabriel, 18 – and Murdoch has six from his three previous marriages – Prudence, Elisabeth, 47, Lachlan, 44, James, 43, Grace, 14, and Chloe, 12.  Insiders say the choice of St Bride’s church, known as the printers’ church when it opened in the 18th century, is a significant statement given Murdoch’s comprehensive assault on the newspaper unions in the 80s when he left Fleet Street for Wapping.  Murdoch believes he is back at the centre of power after five bruising years that shredded his reputation and cost him his back-channel to Downing Street, where he was accustomed to private meetings with a succession of prime ministers from Margaret Thatcher to Cameron.  The reception will also be held at Spencer House, close to Murdoch’s London flat where he was photographed with Brooks in 2011 after jetting in to take control of the phone-hacking scandal and declaring she was his priority.  According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the honeymoon is likely to be on board Murdoch’s superyacht, Vertigo, sailing around some of the world’s most exotic tropical hotspots.  It is all in sharp contrast to Murdoch’s last wedding, a showy affair on his yacht Morning Glory moored off Manhattan. He and Deng were serenaded by Charlotte Church, and guests included the financier Michael Milken and the Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky.
Media mogul marries model and actor in low-key ceremony but Saturday’s exchange of vows will be gathering of media and political elite