It has been 12 months since Fort Belvedere in Florence, Italy, was on lockdown for Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's star-studded wedding.

On 24 May, 2014, the reality star looked every inch the fairytale bride in her lace fishtail Givenchy gown as she strutted down the aisle to greet her rapper beau, 37, in front of a gigantic wall of white flowers.

The day was especially poignant for the American hit maker as he has confessed that he dreamed of making 34-year-old Kim his wife from the moment they met in 2004.

Kanye struggled to hide his lust for socialite Kim for eight years - he referenced her in his lyrics, dated women who looked similar to her and grew close to her family, the Kardashian-Jenner clan.

He was unashamedly public about his affections, confessing to US Vogue in April 2014: 'Basically, you know, she was always my favourite girl.

'There was no girl in the world that could pull me away from her.'

But capturing Kim's heart was quite a challenge for Kanye - a feat that lasted nearly a decade.

When the couple first met, she was married to her first husband, songwriter Damon Thomas so while a friendship blossomed, romance was very much off the cards.

Reminiscing about their first encounter, Kim recently told Access Hollywood: 'When I first met [Kanye], we worked on a project together and there was definitely a spark, but we were in other relationships and we kept our distance.'