Bernie Ecclestone with his daughter Petra Ecclestone leave for Bracciano for the wedding.
If that 1980’s movie Crocodile Dundee had been about the planning of weddings, the most famous line would surely have been changed to the following, “That’s not a wedding. THAT’s a wedding.” And Petra Ecclestone would have uttered it.
But you know what? Once again, truth is indeed stranger than fiction. The 22-year-old daughter of the wildly successful Italian billionaire businessman, Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone, has just thrown a wedding (where she married the British businessman James Stunt) that puts all others to shame.
Estimated at a simply staggering $7.7 million, the nuptials lasted for three days. So when you do the math, $2.5 million or so per day is a veritable bargain, right? It took place at the same Italian castle, Odescalchi in Bracciano, where a certain Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes got hitched for just (just!) $2 million back in 2006.
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On the entertainment front, the likes of Black Eyed Peas, Alicia Keys, Andrea Bocelli and Eric Clapton all performed, and guests were greeted by an 18-piece string section from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, led by renowned conductor Nigel Short. You get an idea of how much some of them must have cost — it’s believed that The Black Eyed Peas earned $2.3 million — when you consider that Clapton performed for free, “as a big favor,” according to Bernie. All NewsFeed’s saying is that Mr. Clapton definitely got as many second helpings of the food as he wanted.
And what of the food, you must be asking? A not too shabby $1.2 million worth of wine and food was imported from France and Britain. When you break that down, a good $1.19 million must have been spent on the wine. Actually, considering that vintage Louis Roederer Cristal champagne and the $6,500-a-bottle Chateau Petrus was served, we might not literally be too far off the money.
The guest list spanned real royalty — British Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice, who are having a breakout year on the attending of weddings front — to far more important reality TV royalty like Paris Hilton. As for the all important details on Petra’s dress, she wore a $130,000 couture wedding gown by designer Vera Wang. Crucially, though we’re not exactly sure why, she was driven to her wedding in not one, but two white Rolls Royces as she switched cars midway through the journey. Perhaps she didn’t care for the radio station.
Two final details worth extracting: there was a performance by acrobats in hot air balloons, which sounds about as over the top as it can possibly get, and the whole shebang was inevitably brought to a close by a $62,000 fireworks display. Those familiar sounds of “ooh” and “aah” could clearly be heard, even if it was just father Bernie being presented with the bill. (via Newser)
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Glen Levy is an Executive Producer at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @glenjl. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.