TRYING to stick to a budget while planning a wedding can be daunting for most people.
But for the fortunate few, no expense is spared as they splash out millions to have the lavish wedding of their dreams.
This week, childhood sweethearts Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant are set to tie the knot in one of the most anticipated weddings in recent memory.
Anant is the youngest son of the richest man in Asia and has a stake in the family’s staggering £92billion fortune. His bride is also from an incredibly rich family that deals in pharmaceuticals.
The ceremony, set to take place across three days from July 12, will see some of the wealthiest people gather in India to celebrate with the pair.
And if the pre-wedding ceremonies are anything to go by, the extravagance would be out of this world.
In March, the couple threw a party that cost a mindblowing £78million. It was also attended by guests including Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, and the King and Queen of Bhutan.
Hosted in the Western city of Jamnagar, guests were treated to meals cooked by renowned chefs and the largest-ever drone show in the world.
They were also serenaded by pop icon Rihanna, who broke an eight-year hiatus to perform. According to sources, the Umbrella singer was paid between £6-7millioin for her time.
Jamnagar Airport was upgraded to accommodate high-profile guests, including former US president Bill Clinton.
For the festivities, the bride wore a £15,600 dress last seen on actress Blake Lively at the Met Gala in 2002. They also gave back to the community and fed 51,000 people in the area.
Last Saturday, the couple hosted another pre-wedding bash. This time, pop prince Justin Beiber entertained guests with a medley of his biggest hits.
Ahead of the lavish nuptials, we look back at some of the most extravagant weddings the world has ever seen.
Sending out gold-encrusted invitations that cost over £3,000 is a pretty good indication of the extravagance to come.
That’s how Anant’s sister Isha and her man, business executive Anand Piramal, started their wedding in 2020. Guests included a plethora of Bollywood‘s biggest stars.
Former US First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and cricketer Virender Sehwag also got invitations.
The bride wore a 16-panelled ghagra in shades of white and gold, which reportedly cost a whopping £9.3million.
Roads leading to the venue were also decorated with fresh yellow and orange marigold flowers. The pair enlisted the services of R&B crooner John Legend and pop queen Beyonce for private gigs.
After the dust settled, the couple has spent £78.1million on the ceremony.
Madeline Brockway and Jacob Lagrone’s wedding last year was so lavish that TikTok commentators quickly labelled it the wedding of the century.
The bride’s father is the chairman of Ussery Motors, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz of Coral Gables, Mercedes-Benz of Cutler Bay and the Bill Ussery Motors Collision Center.
The £46 million ceremony at the Chateau de Villet in Paris featured opulent decor and a drone show that interlocked their initials.
Rock group Maroon 5 attended and performed a live version of their hit She Will Be Loved.
Before the wedding, the couple had a five-day celebration, including a bachelorette week at a luxury five-star resort in Utah, US.
The bride wore a custom Dior haute couture gown while they exchanged vows on a floating platform in a fountain.
Social media users who were blown away by their wedding quickly began to look into the couple and realised that Jacob was on bail on charges of aggravated assault on a public servant in Texas in March.
It’s alleged he fired a gun at three police officers responding to reports of “multiple disturbances” at the same address.
According to The Independent, he was “offered a plea bargain deal of 25 years in prison by the Tarrant County district attorney’s office”.
When it comes to over-the-top weddings, very few couples have come close to Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s 2014 bash.
Before the ceremony, the luxury designer Valentino hosted a lunch in their name.
The pair’s Italian wedding was a £12million affair that featured decorations such as a 20ft Flower Wall that cost £104,579.
Kim, known for her love of designer items, was decked out in a £385,000 Givenchy haute couture gown designed by Riccardo Tisci. Her shoes are said to have set her back £31,000, while her glam squad took £50,000 to ensure she looked her best.
They also had their wedding reception at Versailles, where Lana Del Rey performed.
It was attended by high-profile guests including Chrissy Teigen, John Legend, and La La Anthony. The absence of Kanye’s close friends at the time, Beyonce and Jay Z, raised eyebrows.
After a rocky six year marriage, the couple divorced in 2022.
In 2015, Chinese singer and actress Angela Yeung Wing married actor Huang Xiaoming in a dazzling £24.2million wedding.
The wedding, held at the Shanghai Exhibition Center, was attended by 2,000 guests, including some of the biggest names in Asia’s entertainment industry.
Millions of the couple’s adoring fans also witnessed the ceremony as it was live-streamed online. It featured a ten-foot cake shaped like a carousel and several screens splashed with pictures of the pair.
They ensured guests did not go home empty-handed by giving them goodie bags that included mobile phones.
Angela wore a custom Dior gown that took five months to make. According to Forbes, it was created from 115 feet of ivory satin organza and 165 feet of tulle.
The bride’s wedding band was made by Josephine Aigrette Imperiale and was valued at £1.2million. However the couple, who share a son, divorced after seven years of marriage in 2022.
Hotelier Vikram Chatwal and banker-turned-model Priya Sachdev’s £15.6million wedding in 2006 lasted ten days and was held in three cities.
The couple went all out and flew 600 guests from 26 countries around in private jets to celebrate their big day, including serial wedding attendee Bill Clinton.
Explaining why he splashed out on three different evnues, he said: “A lot of my friends had never been there so I really wanted to show them the country. So we started in Bombay, which is called the gateway to India, and then we moved to Udaipur and then on to Delhi.”
The Sikh ceremony saw the groom mount a white horse for a journey to the Taj Mahal, where his family were greeted by the bride’s relatives.
Fourteen speciality hospitality desks were mounted and 70 luxury cars were on hand to transport guests.
To mark the big day, 50,000 kilos of flowers were shipped from Holland, Bangkok, and Calcutta, 3,000 candles were burned, and 65,000 metres of fabric were used for decor.
When Petra Ecclestone married James Stunt in 2012 in the Italian town of Bracciano, it was one of the year’s biggest high-society events.
Her father, former Formula 1 boss Bernie, revealed that £12million was spent to ensure she had the wedding of her dreams.
Petra looked incredible in her £80,000 strapless Vera Wang dress as the couple posed in front of a stunning lake backdrop. The venue, Odescalchi Castle, is said to have cost £310,000 to hire.
Bernie splashed an extra £2.6million to book The Black Eyed Peas and Alicia Keys for performances. French DJ David Guetta also provided the music.
The wedding, which spanned three days, was attended by the Duchess of York, her children Eugenie and Beatrice, and Paris Hilton and her family.
Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel are two of the biggest stars in their industries. It is no surprise that their 2012 wedding was nothing short of breathtaking.
The couple jetted off to Italy for the ceremony which reportedly cost £4.9million. Around 100 guests were invited to spend one week with the couple at the Borgo Engazia hotel in Puglia.
The 63-room resort was heavily secured, so guests didn’t have to worry about the paparazzi. Security is said to have set the couple back £770,000.
Jessica wowed in a Giambattista Valli Haute Couture gown for the ceremony, while Justin wore a custom Tom Ford tuxedo. She was serenaded by Justin as she walked down the aisle.
As the only daughter of steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, Vanisha has a claim to the family’s huge £12.9billion fortune.
And when she married the wealthy Amit Bhattia, no expense was spared to ensure it would be one of the most talked-about weddings of all time.
For the six-day event that cost £50.6million, the couple flew to Paris and wasted no time adapting some of the city’s iconic buildings, like the Palace of Versailles and Vaux-le-Vicomte, to their taste.
On accepting the 20-page silver-plated invitation, the 1,000 guests received flight tickets and a reservation at the five-star Intercontinental Paris.
Dad Mittal hired 12 Boeing jets to fly guests in.
They also invited superstar Kylie Minogue to perform at the pre-wedding bash. She charged nearly £198,000 for her set.
As one of Hollywood’s celebrated stars, George Clooney‘s wedding to Amal was one for the books.
The couple reportedly forked out an eye-watering £2.3million for their guests’ hotel suites.
Amal also wore several outfits for the celebrations, including an Alexander McQueen dress for the rehearsal dinner and an Oscar de la Renta gown for the wedding and reception.
A whopping £230,000 was spent on the table set-up, while £44,000 was splashed on booze. Guests were treated to a five-course dinner that totalled £23,000.
In all, the wedding is said to have cost £3.5million.
Music superstar Nick Jonas and Bollywood royalty Priya Chopra‘s £2.3million wedding was a stunning display of culture and luxury.
Five months after announcing their engagement, the couple flew to her home country of India for the ceremony that featured over 225 guests.
They had Indian and Western weddings at the Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur. Priya looked like a fairytale princess in a hand-beaded Ralph Lauren gown with a 75-foot-long veil for the Christian ceremony.
Nick wore a double-breasted tuxedo also by Ralph Lauren.
The dress for the Indian ceremony took 110 embroiderers from Calcutta and 3,720 hours to create, according to People.
Their pre-wedding celebrations cost £47,000. They also spent an extra £45,500 a night on the venue for the wedding.
Got a number of weddings coming up? Get ready with our wedding guides.
