All the pictures and videos you missed from Isha Ambani and Anand Piramal’s celebrity-studded wedding celebration

BY NUPUR SARVAIYA11 JUNE 2020

The modern-day heiress’ nuptials to industrialist Anand Piramal was one for the books to say the least

In hindsight, Isha Ambani admits that she wouldn’t have imagined her wedding to industrialist Anand Piramal to pan out any other way. “The wedding went off beautifully. Like any other bride, I had my share of bridal jitters but getting married at home made it very special and I had the time of my life celebrating my most memorable moments with all the people I love,” Vogue India's February 2019 cover girl once revealed to us in an interview. Born with a last name that needs no introduction, it follows then that the 28-year-old’s multi-city, multi-event nuptials had it all—a sigh-inducing love story, an unlimited big-day budget, Instagrammable decor, a bridal trousseau to match, and even a performance by Beyoncé.

Up ahead, we are throwing back to December 2018, when the modern-day heiress walked down the aisle at her family residence, Antilia to marry her childhood sweetheart.

Isha Ambani and Anand Piramal’s love story

The two business families’ ties go back to the ’70s. Childhood friends, Isha and Anand, reportedly started dating in 2016. Two years later, the 34-year-old entrepreneur popped the question to Isha during a visit to a temple in Mahabaleshwar in May 2018. Post the proposal, the couple celebrated with an intimate lunch with Nita and Mukesh Ambani, Swati and Ajay Piramal, grandparents Kokilaben Ambani and Purnimaben Dalal, Akash Ambani, Anant Ambani, and Anand Piramal's sister Nandini Piramal, among other close family members.

The roka

To mark the special occasion, the Ambanis hosted a grand proposal party and roka ceremony at Antilia, Mumbai. The guest list included names like Sachin Tendulkar, Shah Rukh Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, Karan Johar, Aamir Khan, Gauri Khan, Ayan Mukerji, to name a few. For her roka ceremony, which was hosted at her parents’ home, Antilia, Isha chose a pale pink lehenga by Sabyasachi. She topped it off with decadent diamond jewellery. The evening also included performances by friends and family including Isha and her mother Nita Ambani’s dance on the Katrina Kaif-starrer song ‘Nachde Ne Saare’ for the celebration.

The engagement in Lake Como, Italy

In September 2018, Isha Ambani and Anand Piramal the couple officially celebrated their engagement overlooking the picturesque Lake Como in Italy. The engagement bash was a lavish day-affair and for the main day, the bride-to-be opted for a rose pink Dolce & Gabbana gown. The entertainment included performances by Indian favourites Shaan and Pritam, as well as award-winning singer songwriter John Legend, who played one of his most popular tracks, ‘All of me’, for the couple and their guests. Spotted to celebrate Isha Ambani’s engagement were Janhvi Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor Ahuja and Anand Ahuja, Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas, Anil Kapoor, Manish Malhotra, Karan Johar, Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao, among others.

The wedding planning

December 12, 2018 was finalised as Isha Ambani and Anand Piramal’s wedding date. Even though the pre-wedding celebrations were hosted in Udaipur, Rajasthan, the bride chose her maiden home in Mumbai to get married. According to Isha, her parents, Nita and Mukesh Ambani planned the special occasion end-to-end. “During the wedding my mom was CEO and I was chairperson. She and dad did all the hard work. Thankfully, we ended up liking the same things, so that made it a breeze. I didn't go to a single wedding meeting. I was never someone who dreamt of how my wedding would be, yet it was wonderful in more ways than I can imagine. It was a very emotional affair for everyone in my family. I was emotional too but everyone around me would cry all the time. I only cried at my bidaai because I felt some peer pressure as everyone else was crying, especially my parents,” she revealed.

The wedding invitation

Isha Ambani and Anand Piramal's wedding invitation was an emotional tribute to their grandparents. The floral-themed invite was decorated with a wreath of flowers, where each bloom was specifically chosen to personify qualities and values that their grandmothers embody. It also featured a chant, and the Om symbol around a monogram comprising the couple’s initials. On opening, the card played the Gayatri Mantra, and housed a handwritten note written by the bride-to-be on her and her fiancée’s behalf, where she paid an ode to their grandparents, who the two call their role models.

The wedding ceremony

On the day of the wedding, Antilia was decked decorated with thousands of fresh blooms. In fact, the street leading up to the wedding venue, Mumbai's Altamount Road, was also dotted with streamers of bold yellow and orange marigold flowers. Isha Ambani's wedding began with an in-house baraat, led by brothers Akash Ambani and Anant Ambani, who were spotted atop horses at the entrance of Antilia. Brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani were seen welcoming guests. The Piramals wore colourful turbans and danced into the festivities.

The glowing bride made her way to the mandap in a traditional procession flanked by brothers Akash and Anand under a floral chadar. The pre-wedding rituals also included a playful varmala ceremony between Isha Ambani and Anand Piramal. Singer Lata Mangeshkar’s rendition of the Gayatri Mantra was played during the ongoing marriage rituals to bless the young couple, while Amitabh Bachchan went on to explain its profound meaning to the guests.

The bridal lehenga

Isha Ambani wore a custom lehenga by Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla for her big day. The bridal ensemble was a 16-panelled ghagra in two shades of off-white, where each panel was hand-embroidered, and was accentuated with alternating Mughal jaalis combined with floral panels in the finest zardozi, vasli, mukaish and nakshi work. The skirt was complemented with a half-sleeved blouse and a tulle dupatta that had a 20-metre trail. “Red or vermilion, the iconic bridal hue featured in the zardozi borders, lending an auspiciousness to the ensemble,” the designers told us. It wasn’t just the exquisite craftsmanship that made her lehenga special, but Isha’s special tribute to her mother, Nita Ambani that made for the biggest talking-point. She incorporated her mother’s wedding sari as part of her bridal attire, by draping it as a dupatta. The red bandhini sari, draped as the second dupatta, was reinvented by the duo with zardozi borders. “The bond between a mother and daughter, the blessings of that love, an intrinsic part of the bridal lehenga.” The groom complemented his bride in an ivory sherwani.

The celebrity guests

Isha Ambani and Anand Piramal’s nuptials was a star-studded affair to say the least. There to congratulate the couple were some of Bollywood's biggest stars including Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Sachin Tendulkar, Salman Khan, Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt, Priyanka Chopra, Janhvi Kapoor and Rekha, among several others. Other notable personalities from politics, sports and other industries present were Hillary Clinton, the former President of India Pranab Mukherjee, industrialist Ratan Tata, cricketer Virender Sehwag, tabla maestro Zakir Hussain and others.