Usher Finally Weds

When Usher said “adieu” instead of “I do”—and shockingly called off his lavishly planned July 28 Hamptons wedding at the last minute—who could blame guests for thinking the R&B singer and his fiancée, stylist Tameka Foster, were kaput? “Everyone just assumed they were over,” says one of Foster’s relatives. “But then Tameka called a few family members and explained things, and said that they would probably have a small wedding later. We just didn’t know that ‘later’ meant ‘next week.'”

Wedding Shocker No. 2 happened on Aug. 3, when Usher, 28, and a pregnant Foster, 36, tied the knot in a simple civil ceremony, reportedly held in his lawyer’s office. There were no white hydrangea centerpieces, no love songs from Robin Thicke, no fancy spreads from celeb chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. But on that day there was something that was missing July 28: an actual marriage. “Usher never intended not to marry her,” says a source close to the couple. Adds a friend of the singer’s: “When it comes down to it, she’s the mother of his child. And she’s a strong woman. And he loves her.”

So what was the hitch in getting hitched? Theories include a dust-up over wedding details, Foster’s reluctance regarding a prenup (she eventually agreed to sign one) and a strained relationship with Usher’s mother and former manager, Jonetta Patton, who apparently does not get along with her new daughter-in-law. (Foster has three children from a previous marriage as well as a 1991 conviction for auto theft.) Indeed, a source close to the family confirms that Patton was a no-show at the Aug. 3 ceremony, instead spending the day at a spa in Atlanta.

As for the rest of Usher’s inner circle, “some people didn’t know about [the civil wedding] until a day later,” says a source. “But that’s Usher and Tameka for you. One thing one day and a whole other thing the next.”

The newlyweds plan to make it up to their whiplashed friends and family by throwing a big bash in Atlanta in a few weeks. The civil ceremony “was probably the wedding they should have had in the first place,” says Foster’s relative. “No worrying about what food to serve and who sits where and who wasn’t invited. She was there, and he was there, and that’s what matters.”