A big fat Indian wedding is being staged in Auckland next month, complete with lions, tigers, perhaps an elephant or two and a guest list that includes American right-wing idols Sarah Palin and Donald Rumsfeld.
The wedding of Auckland doctor Pooja Chitgopeker to Chicago industrialist Vikram Aditya Kumar will also run to a four-horse chariot, one of India's leading singers and cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble.
It will be carried on one of India's top television programmes, My Big Fat Indian Wedding.
Pooja's mother Aruna, who admits she is being seriously stressed by the organisation of it all, has no doubt it's the perfect thing to do for the eldest of her two children.
"It is good to have something unique and special," she told the Sunday Star-Times.
"We don't just want an ordinary wedding, we wanted something totally unique."
They've hired the Formosa Golf Club for January 6-8 and have had designers create a Rajasthan setting in which the groom will ride in on the chariot to meet his former beauty queen bride.
"He arrives like a king or a prince," Aruna said. The 40 groomsmen will arrive in nine helicopters flying in formation over Auckland. "Ideally, we wanted to hire an island for three days because we've got up to 400 people coming from overseas," Aruna said.
They couldn't get an island close enough with accommodation, so the guests have booked out the Langham instead.
They are having trouble finding an elephant. "We have tigers and lions. We have all that sorted. There are rules and regulations, they are not going to be let loose, they will be in special cages.
"It is quite overwhelming, it is all exciting and there is so much to do. There is a bit of a nervous feeling, being such a high-end wedding, as well."
Pooja, who graduated last month from Auckland University medical school, was born in England but spent most of her childhood here. As a teenager she won an Indian beauty contest here, going on to take the international titles in India. Hoping to become a plastic surgeon, she is now with her husband-to-be in Chicago.
It's not an arranged wedding. "It's a love marriage. We are in this century."
It will be a Hindu wedding, and the families are praying furiously for fine weather after they ruled out alternative venues in Jaipur or Miami.
Pooja's father, Mohan Chigopeker, is a doctor who served as team doctor for both the Indian and New Zealand cricket teams.
Kumar, who was born in Chicago, is CEO-in-waiting of family-owned Autotech Viktron Group, a Bangalore-based world leader in computer circuit boards.
As for the guest list, Aruna was not too sure who had RSVP'd yet. Palin and Rumsfeld – Kumar family friends and supporters – had received their invitations, as have PM John Key and mayor Len Brown.
In a rare change for exclusive weddings, the media is also invited.
michael.field@fairfaxmedia.co.nz
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