Now this is a wedding …
This weekend many hundreds if not thousands of couples will seal their love with an … I do. Perhaps it’ll be a lavish ceremony with hundreds on the guest list, perhaps small, with a few close friends and family.
Maybe a groomsman might get too drunk, or the celebrant, someone might drop cake on the bride’s dress or rip their slacks on the dance floor.
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In Mumbai, India this weekend, however, you’d have to assume that’ll no guest would dare consider an attempt at doing the Eagle Rock at the wedding of Anant Ambani — the son of the world’s 11th richest man billionaire Mukesh Ambani — to pharmaceutical heiress Radhika Merchant.
Theirs is the biggest wedding the world has ever seen, a four day ceremony, estimated to cost more than $A230 million, five times more than Wills and Kate’s.
![Billionaire Mukesh Ambani, third left, stands with his family members from L to R, son Akash, son Anant, wife Nita, daughter Isha and daughter-in-law Shloka at the wedding of his son Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant on Friday.](https://images.7news.com.au/publication/C-15340768/161ef5b162048e228414184d900e69a80cede923.jpg?imwidth=650&impolicy=sevennews_v2)
![Billionaire Mukesh Ambani, third left, stands with his family members from L to R, son Akash, son Anant, wife Nita, daughter Isha and daughter-in-law Shloka at the wedding of his son Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant on Friday.](https://images.7news.com.au/publication/C-15340768/161ef5b162048e228414184d900e69a80cede923.jpg?imwidth=650&impolicy=sevennews_v2)
This extravagant tribute to love for Anant and Radhika, both 29, is in a country where weddings are big business.
For the most part, if a couple in the neighbourhood are getting married, an invitation is painted on the side of the family home, months in advance.
![American actor and musician Nick Jonas arrives with his wife Priyanka Chopra at the wedding of Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's son Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant at Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai, India, on Friday.](https://images.7news.com.au/publication/C-15340768/19c978810d617883fceae8d36657624be26dc661.jpg?imwidth=650&impolicy=sevennews_v2)
![American actor and musician Nick Jonas arrives with his wife Priyanka Chopra at the wedding of Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's son Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant at Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai, India, on Friday.](https://images.7news.com.au/publication/C-15340768/19c978810d617883fceae8d36657624be26dc661.jpg?imwidth=650&impolicy=sevennews_v2)
There is beautiful music and excitable dancing, not a heap of alcohol for religious reasons and just like the Bollywood movies, the good times are palpable all around as the festival of love abounds.
It’s been months since the engagement party, but it might give you an idea of what to expect this weekend … Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were all on the guest list, arriving in the traditional dress.
![Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair poses for a photograph with his wife Cherie Blair at the wedding.](https://images.7news.com.au/publication/C-15340768/1da9977f7ae3b4e7da0749904ca467ca55958c44.jpg?imwidth=650&impolicy=sevennews_v2)
![Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair poses for a photograph with his wife Cherie Blair at the wedding.](https://images.7news.com.au/publication/C-15340768/1da9977f7ae3b4e7da0749904ca467ca55958c44.jpg?imwidth=650&impolicy=sevennews_v2)
Anant and Radhika, who had 1500 guests, and you’d have to think, had little time to mingle with all of them.
This weekend though will be something else, the road closures have virtually annexed Mumbai, and hoards of private jets are parked up at Mumbai airport from all around the world.
There was a traditional Hindu wedding on Friday, followed by the reception over the weekend, That’ll be held at the Jio World Convention Centre — the 27-storey palace, owned by Ambani’s father, who’s behind Indian Conglomerate, Reliance Industries.
In 2018, he threw a similar wedding for his daughter, where Beyonce performed. Just the pre-wedding entertainment this time around (which has been going since January) has included performances by Rhianna and Justin Bieber.
Over the course of the weekend expect to see former UK Prime Ministers Boris Johnson and Tony Blair, FIFA President Gianni Infantino and wrestler cum Hollywood action star John Cena.
There are reports Drake (I guess not Kendrick Lamar), David Beckham and a Kardashian or two are also on the elite level guest list. And almost straight off the plane from Moscow, there are rumours India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will also be in attendance.
Kyle Sandilands’ wedding bash was big but this is something else and with the nuptials now sealed, you can only imagine the honeymoon.
The sheer opulence of the wedding, as well as the political involvement of Modi has been questioned by some in India, who say it’s over the top in a country where inequality is ever present.
But asked in the streets by CNN, one local woman said: “I think it’s fabulous, it’s helping the economy, it’s helping everyone. If they have the money I think they should spend it”.
As India’s economy grows in a country where conglomerates rules, maybe the biggest wedding the world has ever seen, will one day be outdone.