How Blake Lively And Ryan Reynolds Kept Their Wedding A Secret For So Long [PHOTO]

While Hollywood is buzzing with the recent news of Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds tying the knot in a super top-secret southern wedding, the rest of the world is wondering how the power couple kept it under wraps for so long.

As the celebrity marriage is a widely covered event each and every time, it's safe to say that Hollywood reporters have pretty much caught on to the fastest and most efficient ways to find out about who's gotten married and who hasn't.

But just as those reporters have figured out ways to cut corner, celebrities have apparently become just as sneaky. According to E! News, Lively and Reynolds took a more discrete route in planning their holy matrimony.

Sources tell the news outlet that the first step the couple most likely took was no apparent shocker. According to the sources, it was likely that every person involved in the wedding planning process was undoubtedly hit with non-disclosure agreements.

E! News reports that a typical vendor NDA would include a $1 million to $5 million penalty for leaking information to the press. But according to star wedding consultant Harmony Walton, who spoke exclusively with the outlet, more recent NDA's can include damages up to $20 million.

"I've seen a $17 million NDA as well. It's absurd, in a way, because most wedding professional would go out of business paying off even a $1 million breach. It's a scare tactic."

In an effort to further keep the wedding on the down-low, Walden told E! News that the couple probably went with vendors who are headquartered in or around the weddings Charleston, S.C., location.

"Over the past few months, celebrities have been deliberately going with vendors, planners and locations that are outside of the typical Hollywood wedding game, as a way to keep their weddings secret," Walten told E! "Smaller vendors know that celebrity events can make or break them, so they're much more likely to keep their mouths shut," she added.

Smaller vendors also mean fewer employees. It's usually common sense that the less people who know about the event, the less likely it is that word would get out.

As for Lively's choice in venue, Walton point out, "In the South, planners are used to being hush-hush and low-key about events no matter what. It's just how they do things."

Another common way of finding about a wedding would be to check public record. But according to E! News, the Charleston County clerk told the outlet that they did not have anything to do with the marriage license of Lively and Reynolds.

So with the stars reportedly not getting the license in the same city as the wedding, it is most likely that they opted to get it in Los Angeles where you have the option of obtaining one from a notary public. In doing so, local clerks may not get a record of it for an additional week or two. If that's what Lively and Reynolds did, that would explain how the wedding stayed out of public eye for the amount of time that it did.

E! News goes on to report that as a last minute tactic, some of the wedding guests were told that they were headed to Charleston for a belated birthday celebration for Lively, who turned 25 on Aug. 25.