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Big fat Indian wedding in Dubai: Businessman to host daughter's wedding aboard flight with Bollywood, Hollywood A-listers

Aircraft with around 300 guests will take off from the emirate and fly to Oman for the 3-hour 'in the sky' ceremony

Published: Mon 18 Sep 2023, 4:40 PM

Updated: Mon 18 Sep 2023, 11:20 PM

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Dubai, renowned for its extravagant weddings, will play host to a ceremony that will redefine luxury in a city known for pushing the boundaries of opulence. This celebration is set to unfold in the limitless expanse of Dubai sky, taking luxury to new heights, quite literally.

The Popley family, which owns and operates jewellery and diamond outlets in the UAE and India, will host a wedding in a private aircraft in the presence of 300 Bollywood and Hollywood celebrities, dignitaries, friends and families, flying from across the globe on November 24, 2023.

Carrying the guests, private charter flight operator Jetex's Boeing 747 aircraft will take off from Dubai and fly to Oman for the 3-hour journey wedding, which will be conducted according to Sikh traditions and rites. About 1,000 guests will be flown worldwide to attend the week-long wedding celebrations.

Called the queen of skies, the Boeing 747 has been refurnished and rearranged in order to make space to perform the wedding rites inside the aircraft.

The groom, Hridesh, and bride, Vidhi, will exchange their vows inside the plane in the presence of guests and family members, said the bride's father, Dilip Popley, during a press conference on Monday. Twelve months of hard work has gone into planning this second sequel of Popley's wedding in the air.

"It started with my dad's dreams, who wanted to get his son married in the air, and it was a billion-dollar idea. We met the chairman of Air India and had a wedding in the sky in 1994," said Dilip, who is also managing director of Popley Group.

"We have been here in Dubai since 1993; this is my home. So, I want to make this the most iconic wedding of 2023. I couldn't think of any other place than Dubai."

Dilip added, "In the sky, the bride and groom will perform wedding rites according to Sikh rituals. Since a few rites with fire can't be performed onboard the aircraft, they will be performed in the hotel later on the wedding day.

Dilip said he had also dreamt of arranging his daughter or son's wedding in space but will wait for technology to allow that to happen.

Wedding cost

Wedding planner Chimoo Acharaya, founder of Encore The Design Studio, said it was not difficult to host this grandeur event because Dilip's vision was clear about the dream wedding for his daughter.

"Jetex will facilitate the arrival of aircraft and all passengers going through the experience. It is a traditional big fat wedding with a lot of fabulous and different festivities such as sangeet and mehndi, etc.," said Acharya.

"In Dubai, the sky is the limit to spending for weddings, starting from Dh0.5 million and above. We have arranged a wedding that cost Dh8 million as well. It all depends on the number of people and budget the host has," adding that weddings such as Popley's cost around Dh6-7 million.

She said the grand wedding will be sent as an entry to be in the Guinness World Record as it is the first of its kind wedding taking place in the sky in this region. "And this wedding is much bigger than their previous one in the 1990s," she added.

The UAE has been hosting several big, fat South Asian weddings with high-profile businessmen, Bollywood superstars, politicians and bureaucrats attending marriages.

These weddings usually take place over a week, with hundreds of friends and family members invited from different countries to join the celebrations of the new couple.

In June, Indian actors and film producers Mammootty and Mohanlal graced the high-profile wedding of the UAE-based billionaire and chairman and managing director of Lulu Group Yusuff Ali's niece Dr. Fahima, daughter of Yusuff Ali's younger brother Ashraf Ali MA.

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