Radhika Merchant reveals the reason behind choosing July 12 as her wedding date with Anant Ambani; here’s why guests had colour-coded wrist bands

In an exclusive interview with Vogue, Radhika also opened up about why the dates July 12 to 14 were chosen to mark their grand union. Calling it a meticulous process, Radhika said, “The dates were strategically chosen from the 12th, 13th, and 14th of July upon the advice of our family pujari, who identified synchronic moments for our celebrations based on auspicious astrological alignments in both my charts as well as Anant’s.”

While the event has become a talking point around the world, here’s what went behind executing this grand event with utmost safety and preparedness.

For the wedding, celebrities and politicians from across the globe were invited. It included business tycoons, cricketers, film stars and even influencers. There were multiple events organised — while on Saturday, the Ambanis hosted an Aashirwad ceremony for friends and family, on Sunday, a wide range of guests–from employees to business associates–were invited for a grand wedding reception or Mangal Utsav.

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For the events, three different invitations were sent out to a wide range of guests. The top-run guests were sent a large red box that contained an intricate chest incorporating a mini silver temple featuring gold idols of various Hindu deities–Lord Ganesh, Radha-Krishna, and Goddess Durga. The invitation revealed different cards for each wedding event. One of them being crafted from silver, resembling the main gate of an ancient Hindu temple. It also included several keepsakes–embroidered cloth with initials AR for Anant and Radhika, a blue shawl, and a silver box filled with more gifts.

Other guests received a comparatively simpler invitation which was laptop-sized box with silver statues of three Gods and invitation cards.

All the guests were requested to confirm their presence through an email or Google Form. Soon after confirmation, the guests were sent a message that read: “We have received you RSVP and we look forward to welcoming you… the QR codes will be shared 6 hours prior to the event”, according to India Today.

These QR codes messaged to the guests were scanned to get an entry into the venue where different coloured paper wristbands were tied on the wrist of all the guests that gave them access to different zones depending on the colour.

Several A-lister stars, cricketers and business tycoons were seen wearing pink wristbands on Friday and red on Saturday. Employees, security and service staff wore different coloured wristbands.

A source told India Today, “Time between the QR Code being sent and the actual event was cut this time as in the previous Ambani wedding some had sold the access to non-invited people.”

The event witnessed the presence of stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Rajinikanth, Ram Charan, Mahesh Babu, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Nayanthara and Pawan Kalyan, among others. Several international politicians too marked their presence. International personalities Kim Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian, John Cena, Nick Jonas, and Rema also graced the event. The Indian cricket team sans Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli also took part in the lavish celebrations. After hosting a series of pre-wedding celebrations, Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant tied the knot on July 12. They were engaged back in December, 2022.