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When an Indian-born billionaire steel tycoon's only daughter marries, you can expect nothing but the best. And then some. Vanisha Mittal, daughter of tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, married Amit Bhatia, an investment banker, in a lavish ceremony in Paris.

Like most Indian weddings, nearly a week of festivities and parties preceded the wedding. A modest thousand guests -- the weddings of Indian mega-rich are usually 10,000 -- were flown in to Paris from India on 12 Boeing jets, where they were put up at a 5-star hotel in Paris. Sources weren't clear on which hotel, but since the George Cinq was one of the party venues, we suspect that's where they were housed. Not too shabby...






Other party venues were the Jardin-des-Tuileries, a wooden castle erected in Parc St.-Cloud, and (the first time in history it has ever been opened for a private function) the Palace of Versailles was the venue for the couple's engagement ceremony. (It is rumored that it took a year of negotiations before the Palace finally surrendered.) Over the course of the celebrations, some 5,000 bottles of Mouton-Rothschild 1986 were consumed. There was, of course, the traditional mehendi celebration for the bride and the women of both families. The wedding itself took place in the Vaux de Vicomte, a chateau with astonishing gardens.

With such a long and complex series of events, it is not surprising that the invitations, sent out in silver boxes, were 20 pages long.

One of the highlights of the festivities was a family skit ("sangeet", or song-and-dance) in which the parents of the bride played themselves, which acted out the love story of the bridal couple. No amateur play-acting for this family, though: a production in truest Bollywood form, the play was written by a famed Indian screenwriter, and with a music score and choreography, all done by professional Bollywood names. There were fireworks behind the Eiffel Tower. Kylie Minogue also performed for the assembled guests.

All in all, it was a fabulous wedding, the kind of fairy-tale extravaganza that only a doting, very, very rich father could provide. And Vanisha? For all the luxury and extravagance, she's no airhead heiress: this young woman has a bachelor's degree in Business Administration, a master's degree in South Asian Studies, and has fulfilled several internships as part of her studies, besides (not too surprisingly) sitting on the board of directors at Mittal Steel, along with her father and brother.

She's undoubtedly beautiful, she may indeed be spoiled, but she's not a globe-trotting, do-nothing heiress. (Hello, Paris?) Nor is she stupid. And she had an amazing wedding.