Million pound brides: A peep inside the extravagant London weddings of the super-rich Nigerian couples who spend 150,000 pounds on bubbly, 100,000 pounds on a dress and 6,000 pounds on favours.
A traditional Nigerian wedding held at The Dorchester pictured in Channel 5 documentary Eamonn & Ruth: How The Other Half Lives
A London-based wedding planner, has exclusively revealed to Mailonline that super-rich couples from the West African country, Nigeria, can easily blow a small fortune on their nuptials, from spending £100,000 on a designer wedding dress to £150,000 on alcohol.
Ace event maestro, Elizabeth Aisien says London has become the destination of choice for Africa's wealthy elite when they tie the knot.
Ruth Langsford meets Elizabeth Aisien (centre) who says it isn't unusual for wealthy Nigerians to spend £1m on their wedding day
She reveals on Channel 5 show, Eamonn & Ruth: How The Other Half Lives. 'It is not unusual to spend a million. One of the weddings I planned spent £50,000 just on flowers. It's a competition, people want something like "wow, she arrived by plane". The bride wants to look good and wear the best of everything.'
She said brides will pay around £100,000 for a bespoke dress by a designer like Vera Wang and £475,000 on diamond jewellery. She added that it is not just the bride who will push the boat out on the gems they wear to accessorise an expensive outfit. 'The other women want to make a statement, "I wore this diamond, my diamond is bigger than yours",' Elizabeth explained.
Ruth visits a Vera Wang shop with wedding planner, Elizabeth Aisien, (far left). a jeweller, (second from left),
brings diamond earrings, (front right), for Elizabeth to chose on behalf of her rich client
She added that the venues of choice for weddings and receptions are up-market London hotels including The Dorcester, The Landmark Hotel and Claridges. 'Kensington Palace is another favourite for Nigerians now,' she said.
Prices for weddings at the above historic royal Palaces, reportedly start from £12,500 exclusive of catering and VAT.
The luxurious Dorchester hotel is a popular wedding venue for effulgent Nigerian couples
Elizabeth said after forking out to look her best, a bride will then spend a fortune wining and dining her guests - all three thousand of them.
'They will spend the most money on Champagne as you have two to three thousand guests at a traditional Nigerian wedding and they will get a bottle of Champagne each.'
The Landmark Hotel in London is another popular wedding venue for uber-rich couples
This means at an average Nigerian wedding, £150,000 will be spent on booze. And it's not just food and drink lavished on the guests.
While at British weddings, attendees may get a token favour like a chocolate, at affluent Nigerian weddings, they will get a gift bag worth £6,000. Such a bag might contain a £345 perfume, a cashmere scarf worth £350 and a £5,000 watch.
A Lavish Nigerian wedding pictured on UK's Channel 5 documentary
With such luxuries being given out at weddings, it is perhaps no surprise that according to Tatler, every third pound currently spent in Harrods is by a Nigerian.