Celebrity News, Destination Weddings
- Mar 3, 2024
The Anant Ambani-Radhika Merchant celebrations in Jamnagar could well possibly earn the title of “the largest pre-wedding celebration ever”. Industrialists Mukesh and Nita Ambani invited over a thousand guests for the grandest engagement celebrations and present within the Gujarat city were not only the newsmakers from India, but big names from the world over of entertainment and business.
Much before the celebration, news feeds featured videos from Jamnagar showing the arrival of the celebrity entourages on the airport.
The Wardrobe Planner, Invites and Stationery designed by Mumbai design company Itchha Talreja Designs, were circulated throughout and even forwarded extensively on Whatsapp. “Who’s the marriage planner”? was the query on everyone’s mind but like most Indian billionaire weddings this one too, had not one, and even two or three, but multiple teams working behind the scenes. As per wedding industry hearsay, over 10 event management firms, several wedding design boutiques, and diverse production firms and floral suppliers like Interflora, were roped in to work on the behemoth project.
The most important challenge reportedly for all of the teams was prepping up all of the living spaces and venues in a city which has no less than not in recent history seen social events of this scale. All of the hotels were newly built and in contrast to Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur where there are multiple luxury hotels hosting essentially the most high profile weddings, all the things here needed to be designed, quality checked, and built from scratch for all of the visiting dignitaries, making it a task like no other.
In response to an insider there have been several crack teams comprising family and friends of the Ambanis, officials of Reliance Industries Limited and Antilia, who were in-charge of supervising the multiple agencies. And while Manish Malhotra was the Creative Director, select representatives of luxury international brands were also there to orchestrate all the things from event design to styling setups for the hosts and their key guests. It was not only tons of of salon staff like hairstylists and saree drapers who were there; even a few of India’s top bridal stylists like Ami Patel were reportedly roped in to assist international heavy weights with their Indian wardrobes.
Filling up the menu on the Jamnagar do was an array of food brands–from gourmet gift and desserts, and QSRs serving their finest. Along with caterers and hotel chefs, among the country’s best casual high-quality dining brands were all roped in. The specially curated menu covered all the things from the welcome gift and room hampers, to hospitality lounges, in-room dining and meals served at different hotels and functions.
And in the event you’re feeling some FOMO, among the iconic and trending restaurants and cafes that made a show were: Golden Dragon, Subko, Ayubs, Magnolia Bakery and Laduree. UK’s most Instagrammable cafe, EL & N, was also there.
For those crunching the numbers, GQ India speculated over how much Rihanna would have charged for her performance on the private event. It quoted industry reports which said her typical charges can be anywhere between $1.5 million (Rs 12 crore) to $8 million (Rs 66 crore). BBC spoke about how the extravagant pre-wedding event is consistent with the Ambani family’s record of hosting lavish wedding parties, and the way in 2018, Beyonce had performed at Isha Ambani’s pre-wedding bash in Udaipur. Bloomberg wrote about how the guest list for the Anant Ambani’s wedding appears to have more RSVPs from global corporate titans than the weddings of the 2 older Ambani’s children in 2018 and 2019, underscoring Reliance’s growing clout and role as a conduit to the Indian economy for global tech, media and energy giants.
Netizens got to live the Ambani life even before the celebrations began in Jamnagar- videos of bollywood stars entering Mumbai airport to jet off to Jamnagar kept everyone engaged. The wardrobe planner could also be an everyday feature for many who attend destination weddings; nevertheless it soon made the rounds on Whatsapp and for a big majority of urban Indians it was a sneak peek into the world of India’s wealthy and the theme-wise programs for destination weddings. From Jamnagar, netizens watched how celebrities were welcomed; many were actually amused to observe top bollywood celebrities like Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor get into volvo buses and never luxury sedans.
In speeches delivered by Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant each spoke about how Nita Ambani worked around the clock with the event teams to orchestrate the celebrations in Jamnagar. Radhika mentioned how she was in for quite a surprise when she reached Jamnagar because Nita aunty had taken all of the stress of planning and due to her massive effort each she and her fiance could have essentially the most wonderful time. Radhika’s words quite summarise the unique dynamics of Indian weddings and wedding planning–many parents are all the time pleased to tackle as much respònsibility as possible, and so long as parents are planning all of it, Indian weddings will proceed to be grand and grander affairs.
The Wedding Makers
Logistics and Technicals (Major Agency): DNA Entertainment Networks
Decor/ Design/ Florals/ Production: Afreen Florist, Amrita Mahal, Atrezzo Decor, Devika Narain, Dinaz Noria, Floral Stems, Flower Lab India, Heena Patel (Amaahyaaj), Interflora, Magnanimous, Omung Kumar, Omung Kumar, Seventy EMG, Sumant Jayakrishnan, The Creative Company, The Doli Diary
Caterers (Major Events): CCI Delhi, Diva by Ritu Dalmia, Foodlink, Gyanjee Caterers, Indian Accent, Laduree, Popular, Sage and Saffron
International Artists: Akon, Rihanna
Live Entertainment: Arijit Singh, B Praak, Diljit Dosanjh, Falguni Pathak, Harrdy Sandhu, Harshdeep Kaur, Javed Ali, Lucky Ali, Mohit Chauhan, Monali Thakur, Neeti Mohan, Parthiv Goyal, Shreya Ghoshal, Shaan, Sukhbir, Sukhwinder Singh, Pritam, Shibani Dandekar, Udit Narayan
DJs: DJ Ganesh, DJ AJ, DJ Amit, DJ Bhauk, DJ Chetas
