Weddings like Chameleone’s will always be memorable
There was a time when all you needed to pull off a glorious wedding was a good looking partner, innovation and good planning. But today, without money — and I mean money, your wedding will not attract front page attention, unless you are 20 years old and wedding a woman as old as your great-grandm
Hilary Bainemigisha
There was a time when all you needed to pull off a glorious wedding was a good looking partner, innovation and good planning. But today, without money — and I mean money, your wedding will not attract front page attention, unless you are 20 years old and wedding a woman as old as your great-grandmother.
Last Saturday, Chameleone pulled it off with cash. The last time I saw Ugandan couples travel in a chopper, from church to lunch, then lunch to reception, was during my own wedding. But it was a fantasy which I am sure would not count. Jose is the first real Ugandan to pay close to sh6.6m to fly over potholes, impressing many, except, most probably, Dorotia, who — I swear has just dropped in my mind with no malice aforethought.
Yet in 1994, sh6.6m was the total budget for a wedding of the year. Today, it may just be enough for a frugal kwanjula ceremony. This means I need to first stop here and feel sorry for those people who are yet to metamorphose through the wedding stage. You may need to take M7’s state of nation address seriously: Stop using your pads for only sex and food consumption. Make them money generating as well. M7 and I have given you the wisdom, the implementation is yours.
So, what happens to me when guys like Chameleone spent an equivalent of the national health budget on a wedding? I will tell you: I surfed about the most expensive wedding recorded, to date. I used to think it was mine till Prince Charles and Princess Diana came in (Oh! I am that old). And that royal wedding is not even the most expensive wedding! So guess whose it was!
Chameleone? No, he has tried, but his can only take control of Uganda.
Muhoozi? No, again. We are talking of a world record. Think globally.
Bill Gates? Well, this Microsoft guy had a $1m (sh1.65b), 15-minute, seaside wedding ceremony with Melinda on January 1, 1994 on the Hawaiian island of Lanai. To ensure privacy for their day, Bill rented every hotel room at the hotel (250 rooms) and chartered every helicopter close by. But still, he does not top.
Tom Cruise? This American writer and film producer wedded Katie Holmes in November 2006 with what the press called the most expensive wedding of the year. They hosted their guests at a 15th century Odescalchi Castle on the southern shore of Lake Bracciano in Italy. All the invited guests wore clothes designed by Giorgio Armani at the couple’s cost. Different sites quoted different figures, but still never made it to number one.
It must be John D Rockefeller, is it? He is the richest guy — and family — in the world. Yet his wedding was not the most expensive.
How about Mariah Carey and Sony Music boss Tommy Mottola of 1993? Well, she was trailed by a 27-foot veil topped off with a diamond-encrusted tiara, just like Princess Diana’s. But, still, they are not top.
Tiger Woods? This Golfing guru married Swedish model, Elin Nordegren, in a private ceremony at an exclusive resort in Barbados on October 5, 2004. The ceremony, they say, was simple although 500 red roses had to be imported for the wedding. The cost was estimated at $1.5m-$2m (sh3.3b). Tiger hired the whole complex for a week including 110 rooms and three golf courses. The 150 guests included Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and Bill Gates.
Honeymoon was on the multi-million dollar, 155-foot yacht named Privacy, which Tiger hired for two weeks. But he is not number one! So, who is it?
Several Internet sites agreed (so it should be true) that the world’s most expensive wedding was thrown by Lakshmi Mittal for his daughter Vanisha Mittal and her husband Amit Bhatia on June 22 2004.
The wedding ceremony, which was held at Vaux le Vicomte, a 17th-century French chateau, lasted a whole week. The estimated reported cost came in at a mere $60m (sh99b). Journalists were banned from the 1,000-guest list of people from all over the world, whose 20-page-thick silver-cased invitation cards gave them access to six days of events staged in some of France’s most prestigious settings. The lucky groom was a Delhi-born investment banker, now based in London.
His father-in-law owns a steel company worth about $6.4b. Mittal currently holds the record for owning the world’s most expensive London mansion for which he paid out nearly $127m (sh209.55b) — according to the BBC.
He has unfortunately, run out of daughters — for those who may be getting ideas. It is now up, brethren, to break that record. Over to you Ezra.
There was a time when all you needed to pull off a glorious wedding was a good looking partner, innovation and good planning. But today, without money — and I mean money, your wedding will not attract front page attention, unless you are 20 years old and wedding a woman as old as your great-grandmother.
Last Saturday, Chameleone pulled it off with cash. The last time I saw Ugandan couples travel in a chopper, from church to lunch, then lunch to reception, was during my own wedding. But it was a fantasy which I am sure would not count. Jose is the first real Ugandan to pay close to sh6.6m to fly over potholes, impressing many, except, most probably, Dorotia, who — I swear has just dropped in my mind with no malice aforethought.
Yet in 1994, sh6.6m was the total budget for a wedding of the year. Today, it may just be enough for a frugal kwanjula ceremony. This means I need to first stop here and feel sorry for those people who are yet to metamorphose through the wedding stage. You may need to take M7’s state of nation address seriously: Stop using your pads for only sex and food consumption. Make them money generating as well. M7 and I have given you the wisdom, the implementation is yours.
So, what happens to me when guys like Chameleone spent an equivalent of the national health budget on a wedding? I will tell you: I surfed about the most expensive wedding recorded, to date. I used to think it was mine till Prince Charles and Princess Diana came in (Oh! I am that old). And that royal wedding is not even the most expensive wedding! So guess whose it was!
Chameleone? No, he has tried, but his can only take control of Uganda.
Muhoozi? No, again. We are talking of a world record. Think globally.
Bill Gates? Well, this Microsoft guy had a $1m (sh1.65b), 15-minute, seaside wedding ceremony with Melinda on January 1, 1994 on the Hawaiian island of Lanai. To ensure privacy for their day, Bill rented every hotel room at the hotel (250 rooms) and chartered every helicopter close by. But still, he does not top.
Tom Cruise? This American writer and film producer wedded Katie Holmes in November 2006 with what the press called the most expensive wedding of the year. They hosted their guests at a 15th century Odescalchi Castle on the southern shore of Lake Bracciano in Italy. All the invited guests wore clothes designed by Giorgio Armani at the couple’s cost. Different sites quoted different figures, but still never made it to number one.
It must be John D Rockefeller, is it? He is the richest guy — and family — in the world. Yet his wedding was not the most expensive.
How about Mariah Carey and Sony Music boss Tommy Mottola of 1993? Well, she was trailed by a 27-foot veil topped off with a diamond-encrusted tiara, just like Princess Diana’s. But, still, they are not top.
Tiger Woods? This Golfing guru married Swedish model, Elin Nordegren, in a private ceremony at an exclusive resort in Barbados on October 5, 2004. The ceremony, they say, was simple although 500 red roses had to be imported for the wedding. The cost was estimated at $1.5m-$2m (sh3.3b). Tiger hired the whole complex for a week including 110 rooms and three golf courses. The 150 guests included Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and Bill Gates.
Honeymoon was on the multi-million dollar, 155-foot yacht named Privacy, which Tiger hired for two weeks. But he is not number one! So, who is it?
Several Internet sites agreed (so it should be true) that the world’s most expensive wedding was thrown by Lakshmi Mittal for his daughter Vanisha Mittal and her husband Amit Bhatia on June 22 2004.
The wedding ceremony, which was held at Vaux le Vicomte, a 17th-century French chateau, lasted a whole week. The estimated reported cost came in at a mere $60m (sh99b). Journalists were banned from the 1,000-guest list of people from all over the world, whose 20-page-thick silver-cased invitation cards gave them access to six days of events staged in some of France’s most prestigious settings. The lucky groom was a Delhi-born investment banker, now based in London.
His father-in-law owns a steel company worth about $6.4b. Mittal currently holds the record for owning the world’s most expensive London mansion for which he paid out nearly $127m (sh209.55b) — according to the BBC.
He has unfortunately, run out of daughters — for those who may be getting ideas. It is now up, brethren, to break that record. Over to you Ezra.