In a word, Tina Knowles”s recent wedding to actor Richard Lawson was flawless.
“It couldn’t have been more perfect,” Tina, 61, tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview about her big day.
The pair said “I do” aboard a yacht in Newport Beach, California, on April 12, surrounded by close friends and family, including daughters Solange and Beyoncé and their husbands, Jay Z and Alan Ferguson.
Other guests included Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams of Destiny”s Child; Lawson”s kids, Bianca and Richard II; and Samuel L. Jackson.
Grand kids Blue Ivy, 3, and Julez (Solange’s 10-year-old son) were the flower girl and ring bearer.
“To walk down the aisle and see all my friends and family and to see my handsome man standin” there, and to know that at 61 you can still find love and have a magical day like that … it was really beautiful,” says the bride, who wore a dress by Romona Keveza and walked down the aisle to India Arie’s Ready for Love.”
While she has some chart-topping musicians in the family, they didn’t perform because “we didn’t want them to work,” she says. “We wanted them to enjoy the day and not have the pressure of it.”
Tina and Richard, 68, have known each other for three decades, but only just rekindled their connection a year and a half ago: Within four months, she says, she knew “this is somebody that I could really spend the rest of my life with.”
After finalizing her divorce from Matthew Knowles in 2011, “There was a time when I doubted if I would find love again,” says Tina. “But I was determined to be happy.”
Sharing her wedding day with the world, the matriarch hopes to inspire others.
“It was important to me to have a wedding and walk in white, because sometimes we feel that at a certain age you should act a certain way,” she says. “You can find love at any age. You just have to go for it.”
Photo Credit: Cliff Watts///People Magazine
