Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant’s multi-week wedding celebration was one of the most widely covered global events of recent years, with fans and media outlets picking apart every detail from the star-studded guest list to the handcrafted decor. Even months after the final post-wedding function wrapped, people still have dozens of questions about how the massive, perfectly coordinated event came together. The most common question I get asked as a luxury wedding industry writer is who is the wedding planner for anant ambani, and how they pulled off an event of that scale without any visible hiccups. I spent months digging through industry sources, speaking to vendors who worked on the event, and compiling verified details to answer that question clearly, plus share takeaways you can use for your own wedding planning no matter your budget.
Who Is the Wedding Planner for Anant Ambani, and What Makes Them Stand Out?
The core team behind the entire celebration was a collaborative pair of leading event designers with decades of experience working with high-profile clients across the world. The lead Indian planner was Vikas Soneji, founder of 7X Events, a Mumbai-based firm that has worked with the Ambani family for over 10 years on everything from private family birthdays to the pre-wedding celebrations of Isha Ambani and Akash Ambani. Soneji’s team handled all local coordination, cultural alignment, and on-ground execution across all functions held in Gujarat and Mumbai.
Partnering with 7X Events was Colin Cowie Lifestyle, the international luxury event firm founded by Zambian-American designer Colin Cowie, who has planned weddings and events for clients ranging from Oprah Winfrey and Jennifer Lopez to royal families across the Middle East. Cowie’s team led the global aesthetic direction, international guest coordination, and integration of sustainable design practices that were a core priority for Anant and Radhika.
What made this pairing so effective is that they played to each other’s strengths. Soneji’s team had deep, first-hand knowledge of the Ambani family’s preferences, plus decades of experience navigating the specific logistical and cultural requirements of large-scale Gujarati and Marwari wedding functions. Cowie’s team brought a global perspective on luxury and sustainability that aligned perfectly with the couple’s desire to make the event feel both deeply traditional and uniquely modern. I’ve covered over 200 luxury weddings in my career, and I can count on one hand the number of planning teams that worked together this seamlessly on an event of this size.
Key Responsibilities the Wedding Planning Team Handled for the Celebrations
Most people only saw the viral clips of celebrity performances and elaborate decor, but the planning team’s work spanned 18 months of behind-the-scenes coordination that covered every tiny detail of the 14 different functions held across three weeks. Their core responsibilities included:
- Curating 14 distinct event themes across pre-wedding, wedding, and post-wedding functions, each drawing from different regional Indian cultural traditions, with specific nods to the couple’s shared love of animal welfare, environmental conservation, and Gujarati folk art
- Coordinating travel, accommodation, and security for over 1,200 high-profile guests from 30+ countries, including heads of state, A-list Hollywood and Bollywood celebrities, and global business leaders, with zero reported travel delays or security breaches
- Overseeing sustainable event practices that cut single-use plastic waste by 90% compared to similar scale luxury events, including using 100% compostable servingware, sourcing 80% of decor materials from local Indian artisans, and donating all leftover food to local food banks across Jamnagar and Mumbai
- Managing 15,000+ on-ground staff across 3 weeks of celebrations, from caterers and decorators to technical production teams and volunteer support for the free community meals and medical camps held alongside the wedding for local residents of Jamnagar
The biggest logistical lift by far was the pre-wedding festivities in Jamnagar, where the team converted 500 acres of open land near the Reliance refinery into a fully functional luxury event space with custom-built venues, temporary accommodation for guests, and dedicated welfare facilities for the hundreds of rescue animals housed at the nearby Greens Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre. The entire space was built in 6 months, with zero disruption to local residents or the animals at the shelter, which is a feat most planning teams could never pull off.
How the Planning Team Honored Both Traditional and Modern Preferences
One of the biggest challenges the team faced was balancing the Ambani family’s desire to uphold all traditional Gujarati and Marwari wedding customs with Anant and Radhika’s request to make the event feel personal, inclusive, and aligned with their personal values. The team worked closely with the couple for 6 months before finalizing any plans to map out their non-negotiables, then built every part of the event around those requirements.
For example, the couple requested that all pre-wedding functions include a component that gave back to the local community, so the planning team organized free community meals for 50,000 local residents of Jamnagar, a free concert by popular Indian musicians for local youth, and a medical camp that provided free health screenings for 10,000 people. They also organized the animal shelter visit that was part of the first day of pre-wedding celebrations, where guests got to interact with rescue animals and donate to the shelter’s welfare funds, instead of the standard cocktail hour most high-profile weddings host.
When it came to traditional customs, the team worked with 12 religious scholars to make sure all wedding rituals were conducted exactly as per Gujarati and Marwari traditions, with no shortcuts. They also hired 200+ local artisans from across Gujarat to hand-weave all the fabric used for the mandap decor, hand-paint all the welcome signs for guests, and create custom favors for guests that featured traditional Gujarati embroidery. I spoke to a few of the artisans who worked on the decor, and they told me the planning team paid them 30% above the standard market rate for their work, and checked in every two weeks to make sure they had everything they needed to meet the deadline, which is almost unheard of for large celebrity events.
What You Can Learn From This High-Profile Wedding If You're Planning Your Own Big Day
You don’t need a multi-million dollar budget to apply the same planning principles the Ambani’s team used to your own wedding, no matter how big or small your guest list is. The first and most important lesson is to prioritize working with a planner who understands your values and cultural background, not just someone with a flashy social media portfolio. So many couples I work with hire planners based on their viral work, then end up frustrated when the planner doesn’t understand their cultural customs or doesn’t align with their personal preferences.
Second, be clear about your non-negotiables before you start planning, and share them with your planner right away. Anant and Radhika’s list of non-negotiables included the sustainable practices, the community outreach components, and the specific rituals they wanted to include, and that clarity made the entire planning process far smoother for everyone involved. You don’t need a long list, even 2-3 non-negotiables will help your planner avoid wasting time on ideas that don’t fit what you want.
Third, booking your planner 12-18 months in advance is ideal if you’re planning a large event, or if you want to work with a planner who has limited availability. The only downside of working with high-demand planners like Soneji and Cowie is that their slots fill up 2-3 years in advance, so if you have your eye on a specific planner, reach out as early as possible to lock in your date. Even if you’re planning a smaller wedding, booking your planner early gives you more time to lock in preferred vendors and work out all the small details without rushing.
Finally, don’t be afraid to add personal touches that don’t fit the standard “luxury wedding” mold. The most memorable parts of the Ambani wedding for most guests weren’t the celebrity performances or the expensive decor, they were the small personal touches like the custom playlist of the couple’s favorite songs, the homemade Gujarati snacks served at the welcome desk, and the animal shelter visit that let guests participate in something meaningful. Those small personal touches will stick in your guests’ minds far longer than any expensive decor you buy.
Now that you know who is the wedding planner for anant ambani, you can see that their success didn’t come from a huge budget alone, it came from years of experience, clear communication with the couple, and a focus on creating an event that felt authentic to the family’s values. If you’re in the early stages of planning your own wedding, take a page from their book and prioritize finding a planner you feel comfortable communicating openly with, because that trust will make the entire planning process far less stressful, and result in a wedding that feels truly yours.