Every Ceremony From Ambani’s Star-Studded Indian Wedding, Explained

What are reality TV star Kim Kardashian, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and famous Indian cricketer Jasprit Bumrah doing in the same room together?

Attend a wedding, of course.

Anati Ambani, the youngest son of Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, married Radhika Merchant in a three-day wedding ceremony in Mumbai over the weekend.

The event, which has been criticised as a display of extreme privilege in a poor country, has dominated headlines for most of the year as the pre-wedding ceremonies and celebrations have seen some of the world’s most famous names in attendance.

The cost of the wedding is estimated at between $132 million and $156 million, but the exact figure is unknown.

This is not the first time the Ambanis have made headlines for their lavish weddings: in 2018, Beyoncé performed at a pre-wedding celebration for Mukesh Ambani’s daughter Isha Ambani.

Mukesh Ambani is the owner of Reliance Industries, a multinational conglomerate that sells everything from petrochemicals to cheap phones.

Indian weddings are known for being lavish and opulent events, with multiple religious ceremonies and parties to celebrate the bride and groom. It is a multi-billion dollar industry, making it the second largest wedding market in the world, after the United States.

Indian weddings are distinguished by the fact that they last for several days, with different events and celebrations that each have their own cultural significance.

Ambani’s wedding is no exception. The celebrations began four months before the wedding on Friday.

Indian marriages vary greatly depending on the region of origin of the families and can be much more restricted in some cases. The Ambanis are originally from Gujarat, a state in northern India, and they followed many of the customs typical of that region.

The wedding itself

On Monday, the week’s wedding celebrations began with a private ceremony Haldi ceremony. In a Haldi During the ceremony, a turmeric paste is spread on the bride and groom’s face or body by their friends and family. Haldi, which means turmeric in Hindi, is well known for its anti-inflammatory and healing properties. Some consider haldi to have a purifying effect on the bride and groom. The ceremony is usually private and only the closest friends and family attend, a tradition followed by the Ambanis.

The wedding itself began on Friday and continued into the following day. The main ceremony took place at the Jio World Convention Center in Mumbai, which can accommodate 16,000 people. A red carpet was rolled out for the guests, who included wrestler and actor John Cena, singer Nick Jonas and reality TV stars Kim and Khole Kardashian.

In a traditional Hindu wedding, the bride and groom are usually tied together with a piece of cloth while the groom leads the bride around a fire pit seven times. This is called the Pherasor wedding vows. A pandit, or Hindu priest, usually chants the vows in Sanskrit as the couple circles the flames.

Each turn around the fire symbolizes a different commitment the bride and groom make to each other and to God. wishes Once the engagement is complete, the couple is officially married. The ceremony can last anywhere from 45 minutes to three hours, depending on the traditions followed by the couple.

The crowd at Ambani’s wedding was so large that police had to divert traffic around the venue. It is monsoon season in India and heavy rains have disrupted flights to Mumbai all week.

The (multiple) engagement ceremonies

After a quiet temple proposal in December, Radhika Merchant attended her first engagement celebration in January: a traditional Indian mehndi ceremony. This ceremony, also known as a henna ceremony, typically takes place the day before a wedding. The bride has henna, a type of dye that leaves a reddish-orange stain, applied to her hands and feet. Mehndi ceremonies are typically hosted by the bride’s family and are meant to give the bride a chance to relax, as the henna takes a few hours to develop after application.

After this ceremony, the couple held a Gurjati engagement ceremony, the gol dhana, in which the bride and groom exchange sweets made from coriander seeds. Typically, the bride arrives at the groom’s house with these sweets and other gifts, which are exchanged between the families to symbolise their engagement.

Ambani’s Gol Dhana ceremony attracted some of the biggest names in Bollywood including actors Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan, who are household names in India.

Pre-wedding celebrations, cruises and shows

The wedding made headlines when singer Rihanna performed at a ceremony in the family’s hometown in March. The 1,200 guests included Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.

Shortly after their event, the family embarked on a four-day European cruise on a luxury ship. Cell phones were strictly prohibited, but leaked footage showed singers including Pitbull and the Backstreet Boys performing on the yacht. Katy Perry also performed for the family during one of the stops on their cruise.

The Ambanis didn’t just stop at one ultra-rare performance at their pre-wedding festivities: Last week, Justin Bieber performed at another pre-wedding celebration at a Mumbai arts centre founded by Anant Merchant’s mother.

Although Bieber’s performance is what was officially titled, all of these parties, spanning multiple continents and months, could be considered part of a sangeet. Usually, sangeet is a day-long celebration of dance and music before the wedding. Family members usually perform a choreographed dance to a Bollywood song, leading to a final dance between the bride and groom, symbolizing the two families becoming one. The word sangeet is Sanskrit and literally means “sung together”.

What happens after marriage?

After the wedding was over, the couple engaged in the final part of a traditional Hindu ceremony, good blessings, known as The Divine Blessing Ceremony. Here, the couple seeks blessings from the elders of the community. Usually, the couple is showered with rose petals and rice as they walk down the aisle again, thus concluding the wedding ceremony for the bride and groom.

Then the Constitution of Mangalor reception: Similar to an American wedding, this is a party that takes place right after the wedding ceremony is over. Here, the husband and wife have their first chance to dance and celebrate their new life as a married couple.

Ambani’s wedding reception is set to take place at the Ambani family’s $2 billion Mumbai residence, and is sure to be as star-studded and extravagant as the last four months of festivities.