Billionaire weddings: Mittals on top

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New Delhi, Aug 23: NRI steel tycoon LN Mittal has made it to yet another billionaire club of Forbes business magazine for hosting the most extravagant wedding affair of the century.

Mittal outscored billionaires like Donald Trump of US, luxury titan Bernard Arnault of France and Andrei Melnichenko of Russia with a $60 million extravaganza in honour of his daughter Vanisha’s nuptials, Forbes magazine said in a report titled “Billionaire Weddings.”

Mittal family had sent out 20-page invitations in silver boxes, while 1,000 guests were put up in a five-star Paris hotel for the five-day affair for marriage of Vanisha Mittal with Amit Bhatia in June 2004.

A party was hosted one at Versailles, while another event reportedly took place at a wooden castle temporarily erected in Parc de Saint-Cloud, Forbes said.

Pop signer Kylie Minogue performed at the event, while 5,000 bottles of Mouton Rothschild were emptied with wine tab estimated at $1.5 million. Ladies were said to have sported special henna decorations and received luxe goody bags of jewels.

Besides Mittal affair, weddings of Donald Trump as well as that of his son in 2005 also figure among the five billionaire weddings listed by Forbes.

At the wedding of Donald Trump and Melania Knauss in January 2005 at Palm Beach, Florida, about 420 guests, including Hillary Clinton and Rudolph Giuliani, were invited to the event at Trumps’ 18-acre Mar-a-Lago club.

The wedding featured 10,000 flowers, 45 chefs and a 200 lb grand marnier wedding cake. Guests tossed back cristal, listening to live performances by Billy Joel and Tony Bennett.

The bride’s satin dress had a 13-foot train, 1500 rhinestones and pearls and weighed 60 lbs, the magazine said.

Like his father, Donald Trump junior also made headlines for marrying a model and having an equally extravagant wedding ceremony in November 2005. Junior Trump also tied the knot at his father’s palatial Mar-a-Lago estate, which boasts a $45 million grand ballroom. The self-proclaimed “Leonardo da Vinci of cakes” Sylvia Weinstock created the cake.

Russian billionaire Andrei Melnichenko has also made it to the list for his marriage to Serbian model and former Miss Yugoslavia Aleksandra Kokotovich at Cote D’Azur, France in September 2005. The lavish ceremony featured performances by Whitney Houston and Christina Aguilera, who was flown to cannes on a private jet.