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Cape Town - South African television audiences are talking all things weddings, following the launch of Four Weddings South Africa recently on Lifetime (DStv channel 131).
We countdown four of the most expensive weddings to date.
4. Prince William and Kate Middleton
Following in the footsteps of his parents, Prince William had a much anticipated and publicised wedding that was watched around the globe. With 1 900 people at the ceremony, 600 at a luncheon hosted by the Queen and 300 for a dinner hosted by the Prince of Wales, plus a R5.5m wedding gown, R1m wedding cake and close to R11m worth of flowers the final bill was said to be in the region of to R460m.
3. Vanisha Mittal and Amit Bhatia
There was no doubt that India’s richest man would throw a lavish wedding for his daughter Vanisha Mittal when she wed banker Amit Bhatia in Versailles. The destination wedding celebration which included chefs flown in from India and a performance by Kylie Minogue at the reception was said to have cost a cool R1bn.
2. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Makotum and Princess Salama
This 1981 wedding fit for royalty required the construction of a stadium from scratch to accommodate the 20 000 guests. Back in the day the wedding costs were estimated at R600m but translate to about R1.4bn with fluctuation rates today.
1. Charles and Diana
Decades after this much watched event and even after the marriage fell apart; the wedding of Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer remains the most expensive wedding of all time. The R650m (adjusted to close to R1.5bn according to inflation rates) celebrations included 3 500 guests at the ceremony, 120 at the reception, 120 for a family breakfast, 27 wedding cakes and televised coverage for an estimated 750 million people worldwide.
Kim's wedding just didn't make the cut
More recently, Kim Kardashian’s union to rapper Kanye West was cheap by comparison having cost somewhere between R300m and R400m with celebrations in Italy and France over an entire weekend, a custom Givenchy gown and flowers worth over R1m.
Catch all the wedding drama on Four Weddings SA, Fridays at 20:50 on Lifetime (DStv 131).
(Photos: AP, Getty Images)
