Zuckerberg ties the knot

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg updated his status to "married" on Saturday.

Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, 27, tied the knot at a small ceremony at his Palo Alto, Calif., home, capping a busy week for the couple, according to a guest authorized to speak for the couple. The person spoke only on the condition of anonymity.

Zuckerberg took his company public in one of the most anticipated stock offerings in Wall Street history Friday. And Chan graduated from medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, on Monday, the same day Zuckerberg turned 28, the person said.

The couple met at Harvard and have been together for more than nine years, the person said, adding Zuckerberg designed the ring featuring "a very simple ruby."

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan are seen at their wedding ceremony in Palo Alto, Calif., on Saturday. (Facebook/Allyson Magda Photography/Associated Press)

The ceremony took place in Zuckerberg's back yard before fewer than 100 guests, including Facebook's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg. The guests all thought they were coming to celebrate Chan's graduation but were told after they arrived that the event was a wedding.

"Everybody was shocked," the guest said.

Rather than his trademark hoodie, Zuckerberg wore a suit for the ceremony, while his bride wore a traditional wedding dress.

Food was served family-style and included dishes from the couple's favourite Palo Alto sushi restaurant.

The two had been planning the marriage for months but were waiting until Chan had graduated to hold the wedding, the guest said. The timing wasn't tied to the IPO, since the date the company planned to go public was a "moving target," the guest said.

Even after the IPO, Zuckerberg remains Facebook's single largest shareholder, with 503.6 million shares. He also controls the company with 56 per cent of its voting stock.

The site, which was born in a Harvard dorm room in 2004, has grown into a worldwide network of almost a billion people. Zuckerberg, who grew up in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., was selected as Time magazine's Person of the Year in 2010, at age 26.