THERE has been some serious wedding bells ringing recently and lucky for the secretive celebrities, none of us heard it…

until the deal was sealed (or vows were exchanged).

Well, just in case you have not been keeping up with your regular dose of celebrity news, a slew of famous faces got hitched quietly over the last couple of months.

Surprising everyone with their out of the blue matrimony news are Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer who exchanged vows in a super secret ceremony in Malibu, California last weekend.

Although fans of True Blood’s Sookie Stackhouse and ”Vampire” Bill Compton should have seen it coming (the couple was already engaged for months), they may still feel a little cheated that the duo didn’t announce details of their wedding to anyone.

Congrats to Bill and Sookie!

Well, why tell the world about your wedding when you can keep it a secret and cash in on it later (though I don’t think that’s what Paquin and Moyer planned)?

Even super-secretive couple Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz couldn’t help from getting on the let’s-get-paid-for-our-wedding-story bandwagon. The couple — who remained on the down low for years until news of Alicia’s pregnancy with their first child surfaced — shocked everyone with their intention to let Life & Style magazine feature their special day. However, there is no word on how much the couple was paid for the story.

Another celebrity who got paid for her wedding details was former Disney sweetheart Hilary Duff, who got hitched to her professional ice hockey player partner, Mike Comrie, a couple of weeks ago.

The wedding was held in a super secure location in California’s Santa Barbara and guests were not allowed to bring their cameras into the venue.

But pesky papparazzi prevailed and gossip blogs were fed with grainy pictures of Hilary and Mike standing at the altar, with their backs to the camera.

Barely a day later, OK! Magazine carried an online advertisement for their upcoming issue which showed Hilary in her Vera Wang wedding dress, holding a bouquet of flowers with the headline: ”My Dream Wedding”.

Hil sure did have her dream wedding...

It is reported that Hilary and Mike made US$1mil for the picture and article spread which talked about everything from the bride’s chipped tooth on the big day to her choice of blue undergarments for the occasion.

Back in the days when cellphones did not have camera functions and camera lenses could not zoom close enough to a person’s pre-wedding pimples, celebrities announced their plans to get married for the whole world to hear.

But that’s definitely a thing of the past now. Secrecy is in and money-making is definitely the top agenda.

Khloe Kardashian made some serious moolah for her filmed-for-TV 2009 wedding to LA Lakers player Lamar Odom. The youngest of the Kardashian sisters was reportedly paid US$300,000 after selling the rights to feature the secret wedding in OK! Magazine.

This couple made serious money for their wedding!

Guests were banned from bringing in their phones (they must’ve all felt crippled throughout the wedding!) and other recording devices into the wedding area.

There were also rumours that some parts of the wedding were scripted for the family’s hit TV show Keeping Up With The Kardashians. What, why and what for?

The Kardashian-Odom wedding was said to have cost about US$1mil and since it was filmed for the reality show, it was the producers who had reportedly picked up the tab.

But Khloe and Lamar are not the first couple who have thought about filming their wedding for a reality show. Remember Britney & Kevin: Chaotic and Til Death Do Us Part which showed couples Britney Spears-Kevin Federline and Carmen Electra-Dave Navaro respectively on their wedding days? In fact, Carmen and Dave specifically taped the reality show to allow viewers to watch the rock couple on the days leading to the goth-inspired wedding, which was pretty creepy actually.

Reality check: Both Britney’s and Carmen’s marriage didn’t last long … so where does that leave Khloe and Hilary?

Though many of us find that scripted weddings and selling wedding pictures for personal gain a little distasteful, there still are celebrities out there who respect the sanctity of their holy union, like the Kerr-Bloom couple.

Orlando Bloom and Victoria’s Secret supermodel Miranda Kerr stunned everyone with news of their engagement last month and once again took everyone by surprise with their secret wedding a few weeks later.

And to top it all off, they just announced to that Miranda is four months pregnant with their first child together!

Although the couple made an official announcement, they have declined to release pictures and other details of their wedding — not even to the highest-bidding magazine. Now, that’s what we call a classy couple.

Sharm says: Why do I have a weird feeling that Kim Kardashian’s wedding will be aired live on CNN and other major news stations?