Ash-Abhishek • Designers whose creations are part of the wedding trousseau Neeta Lulla and Anna Singh • Venue for the reception Grand Hyatt, Mumbai • Cuisine Indian and continental • Wedding vows Traditional Hindu marriage • Guest list  Amar Singh, the Ambanis and the who’s who of Bollywood

Khan was right. Celebrities often refuse to pay the price for being famous: their privacy. That explains why two celeb couples — Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan, and Elizabeth Hurley and Arun Nayar — are being so cagey about the two most high profile weddings of this season, both slated in March. That also explains why fact blends with fiction when it comes to reporting on a run-up to the weddings.

Take Tarun Tahiliani. The ace designer is miffed. Over the past few weeks the media had worked itself into a tizzy, proclaiming that Tahiliani is designing Elizabeth Hurley’s wedding outfit. It even went to the extent of quoting its prize — £4000. But, says Tahiliani, “I am not designing it. I am very upset at the rumours.”

The rumours had a basis. The former face of Estee Lauder was spotted at Ensemble — which dabbles in haute couture — in Mumbai with her future mother-in-law, Gunar Nayar, recently. “She picked up some stuff, one of which — a pink sari — was my creation. Thereafter the media’s imagination started working overtime,” says Tahiliani, who is known to have designed Jemima Khan’s wedding outfit when she had got married to Pakistani cricketer Imran Khan.

Apart from the pink sari with kundan embroidery, Hurley — who chooses to describe herself as a “professional actress” on her notice of marriage to Indian businessman Arun Nayar, on public display at Cheltenham Register Office, UK, till February 28 — also bought another sari from Calcutta-based designer Anamika Khanna’s collection. “This one is a burnt orange chiffon which is embroidered in the form of a texture,” says the designer.

Both perhaps are part of Hurley’s wedding trousseau, just as those 21 sarees that Aishwarya Rai has purchased from Varanasi. The actress, however, has zeroed in on another designer much in the reckoning — Neeta Lulla — to design her wedding outfit. Lulla, who had designed Shilpa Shetty’s wardrobe for Celebrity Big Brother and her outfit for her rendezvous with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, is also working on Rai’s costumes in Akbar Jodha. At the moment, snowed under with work, she is not quite willing to divulge details of the wedding outfit. “I will, when the time comes,” she says.

Liz-Arun • Designers whose creations are part of the wedding trousseau Tarun Tahiliani and Anamika Khanna • Venue for the reception Umaid Bhawan Palace, Jodhpur • Cuisine International • Wedding vows An English wedding, followed by an ‘Indian princess’ style wedding • Guest list Hugh Grant, Elton John, Victoria and David Beckham

Calcutta-based designer Sharbari Datta has been commissioned by Brinda Rai, the Bollywood actress’s mother, to design a few silk kurtas for their would-be son-in-law, Abhishek, along with kantha-stitched and tusshar silk shawls. “I have been given freedom in terms of colours and designs but haven’t used dull colours as Abhishek isn’t fair. Steel grey and maroon are some of the colours I’ve used,” says the designer. Datta has already sent the first lot of stuff to Brinda Rai while the deadline for the second lot is the first week of March.

Some of those designs will be on display, no doubt, at the venue for the Rai-Bachchan reception — the Grand Hyatt at Santa Cruz in Mumbai. “Many high profile weddings such as those hosted by the Hinduja brothers and also those of Bollywood personalities like Fardeen Khan and Zayed Khan have taken place here,” says a source at the hotel. “This property is huge, it’s location convenient, our services, the food, the parking facilities for 800 cars together make for a convenient spot for a wedding reception.”

The venue for the reception of the Hurley-Nayar wedding, however, is on a grander scale. Hotel Umaid Bhawan Palace, one of India’s finest luxury hotels, in Jodhpur has been booked for the reception, which is to be preceded by an English-style wedding in Sudeley Castle near Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, in the first week of March. That’s because Hurley happens to be close friends with the castle’s heir, Henry Dent-Brocklehurst, who is godfather to her son Damian.

The entire hotel in Jodhpur has been booked for three days from March 9 to March 11, sources at the Umaid Bhawan Palace say. Furnished with fashionable Art Deco interiors done by Polish artist S. Norblin, the hotel has been built out of one million square feet of the finest marble. It also has a private cinema hall, a luxurious swimming pool inlaid with tiles depicting the zodiac, gigantic royal suites, a soaring rotunda, fancy ball rooms, a majestic durbar hall, billiards room, ballrooms, banquet halls, libraries, staff quarters and servant quarters. “It’s as grand as it gets” say insiders, adding that the couple had flown in a couple of months ago when Hurley was in Rajasthan to shoot her swimwear range, Elizabeth Hurley Beachwear, and famously fallen in love with the place.

Well, let’s hope there is no love’s labour lost between the two couples and that they live happily ever after.Ash-Abhishek