Culture / Fashion / Weddings / Sporting Life

Mega Millionaire Astros Owner Jim Crane Gets Married in a Dreamy, Fantasyland Wedding: Couple’s 3-Year-Old Son Enjoys the Show

BY // 06.01.17
photography Terry Gruber of Gruber Photographers

The Houston Astros are off to one of the best starts in baseball history, and owner Jim Crane is creating some major fireworks of his own.

Crane wed his girlfriend Whitney Wheeler in a sweeping, fantasyland Palm Beach wedding over Memorial Day weekend. With the couple’s 3-year-old son, James Robert Crane II, at the center of the action and Houston royalty like Houston Rockets Hall of Famer Clyde Drexler in attendance, Crane and Wheeler tied the knot in a virtual dreamland. Think towering floral swans flanking each side of the altar; a custom-made dance floor crafted out of blue hydrangeas, white roses, blue delphiniums, gardenias and orchids; and country music star Clay Walker performing.

Crane had booked Bruno Mars for an earlier potential wedding date, but a snafu prevented that from going off. Not that the happy couple minded on this day.

For the ultra-private Crane to release photos from the wedding gives a sense of just how happy the mega millionaire sports owner and shipping magnate must be. This is Crane’s third marriage and Wheeler’s first. When I sat down for a long, in-depth, anything-goes interview with Crane — something he never would have agreed to before — last summer, he seemed much more at peace with himself.

On Crane’s wedding day, his oldest son Jared Crane offered a heartfelt toast before the newly married power couple took to that stunning custom-made dance floor.

Jim Crane, Whitney Wheeler and their son James Robert Crane II have a moment on the big day.

The wedding took place at Crane’s Floridian National Golf Club — the same one Barack Obama has enjoyed playing several rounds at, one with Tiger Woods and Crane. The actual ceremony was staged by the exclusive club’s private marina at sunset last Saturday night. Whitney Wheeler, a Pebble Beach girl, wore a custom-designed Carolina Herrera wedding gown with eye-catching blue lace touches — her blonde hair in tresses. Her father, Dr. Robert Kreb, gave her away. Crane wore a white tuxedo jacket and black pants and looked as perfectly pressed as his late father, a clotheshorse and stickler for the lost art of ironing, would have expected.

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The couple were not the only ones in white. This was an all-white wedding — with the 120-plus crowd of family, friends and power players complying with the invite dress code.

Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow and his wife Gina did attend, but the Astros players were a little busy at the time, midway through a series sweep of the Baltimore Orioles. They missed quite a show. The Cranes clearly spared no expense.

Preston Bailey — the famed New York City wedding planner to the stars — orchestrated the elaborate, dreamy, almost surreal scene. Bailey did Oprah Winfrey’s lavish 50th birthday party and Ivanka Trump’s wedding. He knows how to make a setting memorable.

When it comes to both Crane and the Astros,  2017 sure looks like quite the year to remember.

For more pictures of the wedding, flip through the complete gallery at the top of this story. 

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