If you thought your wedding costs were steep, imagine what it costs to book Stevie Wonder and Kylie, and to mail your invitations out in silver boxes? Or how about 110 types of dishes for 11,000 guests, a £200,000 dress, or designer gift bag favours filled with jewels?
Dream on (or feel queasy with the extravagance of it all) and soak up all the juicy deets from the world’s ten most expensive weddings (as of August 2014)!
10. Elizabeth Taylor & Larry Fortensky: £2.3million
Date: 6 October 1991
Location: Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch, California
The dress: A pale yellow Valentino number worth £18,000 but donated for free by the designer.
What else went down: Michael Jackson played father of the bride, and 160 guests attended the ceremony, including Macaulay Culkin, Liza Minnelli and Eddie Murphy.
9. Liza Minnelli & David Gest: £2.5million
Date: 16 March 2002
Location: Marble Collegiate Church, New York City
The dress: Liza wore an ivory white Bob Mackie three-quarter length gown.
What the budget went on: A 60 piece orchestra and the musical talents of Stevie Wonder, Tony Bennett and Natalie Cole. £500,000 on flowers and a £25,000 wedding cake.
What else went down: There were 850 wedding guests including Queen guitarist Brian May, Liam Neeson, Joan Collins, Gloria Gaynor, Anthony Hopkins, Mia Farrow…the list goes on. Michael Jackson was the best man and Elizabeth Taylor was the maid of honour.
8. Chelsea Clinton & Marc Mezvinsky: £3.5million
Date: 31 July 2010
Location: Rhinebeck, 100 miles north of New York City, at the grand estate of Astor Courts overlooking the Hudson River,
The dress: A Vera Wang ivory strapless gown featured a silk tulle diagonally draped bodice with a raw edged laser-cut swirling silk organza ball skirt and train.
What the budget went on: £400,000 on air-conditioned tents and a £7,000 cake.
What else went down: There were 500 guests, including Oprah Winfrey, and security was super tight – no mobile phones were allowed, and a no-fly zone was set up over the wedding zone.
7. Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries: £4million
Date: 31 July 2010
Location: Tuscan-style Sotto Il Monte estate in Montecito, California
The dress: Kim’s chose Vera Wang for her big day, along with two other dresses coming to a total of £40,000.
What the budget went on: £1.3million on the flowers alone, and £13,000 on a black and white five foot high seven-tiered wedding cake made of white chocolate buttercream frosting with chocolate chips added, then iced in black and white buttercream,
What else went down: Her 20.5-carat engagement ring alone cost £1.2million.
6. Coleen McLoughlin & Wayne Rooney: £4.7million
Date: 12 June 2008
Location: A 17th century villa in Genoa, with the reception at a medieval abbey above Portofino in Italy.
The dress: A magnificent custom-made Marchesa creation featured a stunning silk organza bodice and huge Cinderella-style skirt made of pleated silk and organza fans, but after spending almost approximately £200,000 on the dress, guests had to wonder if the budget had run out after being served pizza for the reception.
What the budget went on: A masked ball in Genoa on an £80million yacht with Irish boy band Westlife performing at a cost of around £400,000.
What else went down: An intimate affair, 64 guests were flown in on private jets, and spent several days flitting between the expensive yacht and a luxury five star hotel.
5. Aleksandra Kokotovic & Andrey Melnichenko: £4.7million
Date: 3 September 2005
Location: Cote d’Azure, France
What the budget went on: The musical talents of Christina Aguilera and Whitney Houston. Each of them charged a reported £2million each to perform.
What else went down: The marriage of Miss Yugoslavia and a Russian billionaire was always going to be a luxury extravaganza.
4. Kate Middleton & Prince William: £20million
Date: 29 April 2011
Location: Westminster Abbey, London, followed by a party at Buckingham Palace
The dress: Kate wore a British-made fairytale dress designed by Sarah Burton, the creative director of Alexander McQueen.
What the budget went on: £480,000 on flowers, £50,000 on the two cakes (paid for by Prince Charles), and £285,000 on the dress.
What else went down: Everyone in the UK benefitted from an extra day off, and the wedding was watched by 2 billion viewers across the world.
3. Lady Diana Spencer & Prince Charles: £31million
Date: 29 July 1981
Location: St Paul’s Cathedral, London was followed by a dinner attended by 120 guests at Buckingham Palac.
The dress: Diana wore a puff ball meringue wedding dress covered in 10,000 pearls with a 25-foot train of ivory taffeta and antique lace by David and Elizabeth Emanuel
What the budget went on: £360,000 on security alone. And a £25,000 five foot high cake that took 14 weeks to prepare, with a duplicate cake made in case of accidents.
What else went down: Diana’s diamond and sapphire ring cost a reported £40,000 and was given to the Duchess of Cambridge upon her own engagement to Prince William.
2. Vanisha Mittal & Amit Bhatia: £48million
Date: 18 November 2004 (5 day event).
Location: An engagement party at the Palace of Versailles, and a wedding at the 17th century Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte
What the budget went on: Kylie performed at the wedding of the steel tycoon billionaire, Lakshmi Mittal’s daughter, to a London investment banker, at a cost of approximately £200,000. 100 different dishes were served, and the wine alone cost £1million.
What else went down: Invitations were mailed out in silver boxes, including plane tickets and rooms at a five-star Paris hotel. Wedding favours were designer gift bags filled with jewels.
1. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum & Princess Salama: £60million
Date: 1981
Location: Sahara, Dubai, with a stadium built from scratch to accommodate the 20,000 guests for 7 days of luxury.
What the budget went on: 110 types of dishes for 11,000 guests
What else went down: A five day holiday was declared, and the wedding earned a place in the Forbes list of “Billionaire Weddings”.
Top image taken from Starr & Jacques Palace of Versailled themed Jewish wedding
Lol wow crikey!! I wonder how much of their budget went on wedding photography!
Good question! Who knows, it may even have been free, courtesy of Hello Mag!
60 Million! Wozers.
I think if many of us had that budget we could spend it so much more wisely?! I guess it would never get to be that expensive though. Remote exclusive locations, security, way more guests than the average wedding, designer bridal wear etc no wonder so many opt for a magazine deal!
Can’t even wrap my head around that amount of money on a wedding!!
Holy moly!! thats insane, that last one… 60 million! and that was back in 1981, i wonder what the adjusted rate is now? (also the year I was born!)
£60 million – wowed. To have been a guest…..
Lovely summary Karen of some decadent weddings x
Well I guess this puts everything into perspective … well not really.
Fun read though.
60 MILLION?! How is that even possible! I wonder what Niemierko and his team could do with a budget like that! Wow x