The date was May 18, 2007. While the rest of the world was hum-singing the hooks to "Rehab," Amy Winehouse was standing in a sterile, fluorescent-lit office in downtown Miami. She wasn't there for a gig. She was there to marry Blake Fielder-Civil.
It wasn't the kind of wedding you’d expect for a burgeoning global superstar. No cathedral. No designer gown that took six months to stitch. No long guest list of A-list celebrities trying to out-pose each other for Vogue. Honestly, it was a $130 civil ceremony that barely lasted long enough for the ink to dry on the license.
The Miami Secret Nobody Saw Coming
People often think of Amy’s life as this loud, chaotic parade, but the wedding itself was surprisingly quiet. The couple had been staying at the Shore Club hotel on South Beach. They had only been back together for about a month after a massive, painful split—the kind of breakup that literally gave us the Back to Black album.
They walked into the Miami-Dade County Courthouse with a handful of friends. Six, to be exact. Amy wore a simple, $130 white anchor-print dress she’d reportedly picked up from a local shop. Blake was in a suit, looking like the "gofer" for music videos he was often described as. They said their vows, paid the fees, and that was it. They were Mr. and Mrs. Fielder-Civil.
Afterward? They didn't go to a five-star ballroom. They went back to the hotel, hit the pool bar, and ate burgers.
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Why Miami?
You might wonder why a girl from Camden ended up in a Florida courthouse. At the time, Amy was in the States for work and a bit of a vacation. The wedding was spontaneous. One of those "let's just do it" moments that felt right in the heat of a Miami afternoon but looked a lot different under the harsh light of the UK tabloids a week later.
The Reality of the Wedding "Party"
There’s a lot of myth-making around this day. Some people claim it was a drug-fueled bender from the jump. While the relationship eventually became synonymous with addiction, the wedding day itself was described by those present as surprisingly sweet, if a bit frantic.
- The Witnesses: Just a small circle of friends.
- The Cost: Estimates put the legal fees and the dress at under $300 total.
- The Vibe: Casual. Very casual.
Amy’s family didn't even know it was happening. Her father, Mitch Winehouse, later expressed his heartbreak over being left out of such a pivotal moment. It set a tone for the marriage—Amy and Blake against the world, with everyone else, including their own families, standing on the outside looking in.
A Marriage Built on "Back to Black"
It’s impossible to talk about the Amy Winehouse and Blake wedding without talking about the music. Their entire relationship was the engine behind her greatest work. When they first dated and he left her for an ex-girlfriend, she wrote "Wake Up Alone" and "Love Is a Losing Game."
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When they got back together and married, the music changed. It became about "Some Unholy War." She was ready to fight for him. She had his name tattooed over her heart. He had her name behind his ear. It was a level of devotion that felt romantic to some and terrifying to others.
The honeymoon wasn't exactly a relaxing beach getaway either. By June, they were at Glastonbury, staying in a lavish £3,000 tepee at Camp Kerala. Even then, the cracks were showing. Reports from the festival described Amy flying into a "jealous rage" when she thought a girl was flirting with her new husband. The high of the wedding was already meeting the reality of their mutual volatility.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Union
A lot of the narrative since Amy’s passing has painted Blake as the sole villain who "destroyed" her. It’s a bit more complicated than that. Blake has admitted in later years—including a 2023 interview on what would have been Amy's 40th birthday—that he introduced her to heroin. That’s a heavy burden to carry.
But Amy was also a woman who made her own choices, however tragic they were. She told newspapers in 2009 that she had "forgotten I'm even married to Blake" and that the marriage was "based on doing drugs." It was a codependency that moved faster than they could handle.
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The Timeline of the End
- May 2007: The Miami wedding.
- July 2008: Blake is sentenced to 27 months in jail for assault and perverting the course of justice.
- January 2009: Amy is photographed in St. Lucia with another man; Blake files for divorce from prison.
- August 2009: The divorce is finalized.
The Legacy of a $130 Ceremony
Looking back, the wedding feels like the eye of the storm. For a few hours in Miami, they were just two young people in love, away from the Camden paparazzi and the pressure of a Grammy-winning career.
If you're looking to understand the real Amy Winehouse, don't just look at the tragic headlines from the end. Look at the girl in the $130 anchor dress. She wanted a simple life with "her Blake," even if that dream was never going to survive the reality of their lifestyle.
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If you want to see the "real" Amy from this era, look for the candid photos taken at the Shore Club pool immediately following the ceremony. They show a side of her that the "Back to Black" persona often masks—genuine, unforced happiness. To truly understand her story, it’s worth watching the 2015 documentary Amy, which uses archival footage to show the nuance of their early attraction before the addiction took over. It helps move the conversation past the "villain vs. victim" trope and into something much more human.