All the Ambani Wedding Celebrations, Explained

In March, Vogue published a feature on the three-day pre-wedding celebrations and hastakshar of Anant Ambani and his fiance Radhika Merchant. By that time, many of our readers were already familiar with the couple: earlier that weekend, videos of Rihanna arriving in India began circulating widely on social media. Internet sleuths soon figured out she was there to perform a private concert for the Ambanis—the richest family in the country—and their 1,500 guests. People around the world began following along on their feeds.

As lavish as they were, as it turns out, those celebrations were only the beginning. The couple also held a Mediterranean pre-wedding cruise in May for about 1,200 people, published on Vogue earlier this week. We noticed many of our readers asking the same thing: Didn’t they already have a pre-wedding? And if these are just the pre-wedding events—what is the real wedding going to be like?

So, we took it upon ourselves to do a quick explainer of the many events surrounding the nuptials of Anant and Radhika. Spoiler alert: they are far from over.

In March, the Ambani family threw a three-day pre-wedding weekend and hastakshar (a traditional Indian prenuptial event that symbolizes their respective families’ commitment to each other) at the Ambani’s home in Jamnagar, Gujarat. The party began with a dinner in a grand glass structure of the family compound which resembled Palm House in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden—a favorite place of the bride-to-be when she was a college student in New York City. Afterwards, Rihanna performed.

The next day, they held lunch on the grounds of Anant’s animal sanctuary, Vantara. At night, they held a Mela Rogue-themed party, a playful spin on the film Moulin Rouge.

On Sunday, it was time for their formal hastakshar. The bride-to-be wore a concept sari by Tarun Tahiliani. Afterward, Anant’s mother performed a Bharatanatyam-style dance for the crowd. It was an emotional end to an emotional weekend for the couple: “It added to the divinity of the night—all in the temple where we spent so many special moments during the last seven years together,” Radhika says.

In May, the Ambanis threw a second pre-wedding weekend. While their first weekend was centered around a religious ceremony, this weekend was more about fun: “It was a retreat for the people that have contributed to our life in different ways,” Radhika Merchant says of the event.

The 1,200-person guest list included their friends and family, as well as employees at the Ambani family company Reliance Industries; the Merchant family company of Encore Healthcare; and Anant’s animal sanctuary Vantara. Even the family’s doctors were on board. “We had people from the ages of six months going up to 90 years,” Radhika says. The cruise made stops in multiple European locales, including Portofino and Cannes.

On July 5, Radhika and Anant held their sangeet—or, a night of dancing and music that acts as a welcome party before the official wedding—in Mumbai, India. Taking to the stage to perform for their friends and family? None other than Justin Bieber.

The bride and groom both wore custom looks by Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla.

The official wedding of Radhika and Anant will take place in mid-July in India. It’s no exaggeration to say that the world will be watching.