The Big Fat Geek Wedding: Spotify billionaire's £6.6m star-studded ceremony

 
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Silicon Valley’s wedding of the century — complete with a star-studded guest list, £6.6 million budget and an Oscar-winning costume designer — will take place this weekend as Sean Parker marries his girlfriend.

Actor Ashton Kutcher, his girlfriend Mila Kunis, Beatle John Lennon’s son Sean and singer Sting are among those expected to attend the “multi-day event” at the Grand Sur beauty spot in California.

Parker, 33, worth an estimated £1.3 billion, is seen as the godfather of social media — he founded Napster, helped launch Facebook and is also behind music site Spotify.

But while his fellow Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg chose to marry in a low-key ceremony in his backyard last year, flamboyant Parker has opted for a more extravagant affair for his wedding to singer-songwriter Alexandra Lenas.

The event has been dubbed “My Big Fat Geek Wedding” by some, while gossip columnists have called Parker the first “Groomzilla” because of his demands.

A hotel in the nearby town of Monterey has been booked for more than 100 staff being flown in, including those from a San Francisco catering company.

Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings costume designer Ngila Dickson has been hired to create costumes for the guests and Parker says the designs will be “gorgeous, inspiring and unique designs that are both modern and whimsical”. He is apparently going for A Midsummer Night’s Dream feel — in a recent profile, he compared himself to the character Puck and likes the idea of being a “lord of misrule”.

A landscaping company has been hired to build a multi-million pound backdrop, complete with waterfalls, a £400,000 entrance gate, bridges, fake ruins and a cottage.

A £230,000 stone dance floor has been installed in the woods, while plants and flowers are said to have cost £660,000. Lenas, who has a five-month-old daughter with Parker, is expected to sing, more than 300 guests have been invited and Parker has hired the entire Ventana park around Big Sur.

Parker, known for his hard partying lifestyle, counts Two And a Half Men star Kutcher among his best friends and Kutcher described him as a “genius”. Parker is also close friends with Sean Lennon and has been friends with Sting and wife Trudie Styler after meeting them at a charity benefit.

Despite claiming to be shy, Parker is a regular on the east and west coast charity and social circuits and counts socialite Denise Rich, journalist Michael Wolff and Democratic politicians among his friends.

Fellow technology billionaires, including Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and LinkedIn boss Reid Hoffman will also be at the wedding, although it is unclear if Zuckerberg will attend.

The two remained friends even after Parker was ousted from the Facebook board, but had a “screaming row” after a night drinking in New York as they argued over whether Spotify users should have to sign up to Facebook.

One star unlikely to make the guest list is Justin Timberlake, who played Parker in the Facebook movie The Social Network. Parker is said to have hated his portrayal as a sex-obsessed, arrogant party boy and refused to co-operate with the making of the film.

Zuckerberg and other tech moguls also believe Parker’s spending is out of touch with recession-hit America.

Sensitive about reports comparing the wedding to a medieval epic, Parker wrote on Facebook: “This is NOT a theme wedding and there will be nothing ‘medieval’ about it.”

“We’re pretty used to celebrities being in Big Sur,” said Stan Russell, head of the chamber of commerce. “But for this one, they’ve basically built a movie set to have their wedding.”

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