Fortunately, of course, the wedding itself was captured on film in order for the public to better understand what happened that day. The sumptuous video of the event opens with a couple getting ready in their respective Sydney harbourside settings, hugging family, sharing laughs, and displaying the same pre-wedding nerves that most people suffer on their big day. The lace is abundant and the watches are Rolexes.
At this point the story diverges a little from even the most flamboyant of wedding narratives: the groom and his best men get into four helicopters, fly across the city, and land next to a red carpet in the middle of a public park. There they transfer to a $50m fleet of luxury sports cars – escorted by a convoy of motorbikes – and travel down a public street, its residents having been warned to remove their cars from the scene or risk being towed.
Salim Mehajer, the deputy mayor of Auburn council in western Sydney, and his bride Aysha, spared no expense that Saturday, nor did they spare their neighbours much inconvenience. As the details of the wedding have come rolling in, they’ve sparked about equal levels of outrage and awe.
But then the event did go above and beyond normal expectations, even set against Sydney’s famously large Lebanese weddings. The exact cost isn’t known, but with Australians spending on average about $40,000 on a wedding, one can safely say it was well above average. In addition to the four helicopters, the convoy of motorbikes and the luxury cars, there was a jet flyover and a plane towing a sign of congratulations.
Groomsmen drove into the reception room on oversize motorcycles, and pictures of the venue reveal a Kardashian-West-style wall of floral arrangements and an extraordinary seven-tier cake, fireworks and Australian singer Missy Higgins as at least part of the hired entertainment.
Before their big day, the couple also made a painstakingly produced but questionably acted short film about their romance. Another video showed the couple growing old together, “ageing” with the aid of special-effects makeup artists.
Much of the controversy has however centred on the morning of the big day itself, and what was sanctioned, and what was simply boldly done. The day began with drummers and live music shutting down a street where residents had earlier received notes in their letterboxes warning them to park their cars on their own properties that day or face being towed. It does seem that Mehajer had no authority to make such a threat, armed as he was only with a permit to film in the area.
On the day itself dozens of police were called in to respond to the traffic disruption that arose from the street shutting down, and New South Wales police are considering presenting Mehajer with the bill for that, but so far no charges have been laid or fines issued.
One thing that’s clear is that Mehajer really can’t have had much of a honeymoon, finding himself on a bevy of front pages and the subject of an urgency motion at Auburn council. The multimillionaire property developer returned to work as deputy mayor on Wednesday evening, arriving in a Ferrari to a council meeting which tried and failed to censure him.
He left with a $220 fine, amid the shouts of about 200 supporters. The fine related simply to breaching the consent he’d been given regarding road closures.
One of his colleagues, Councillor Irene Simms, was furious there would be no consequence for the letter drop warning people to keep their cars off the road.
“I don’t know if council has the authority to do that, but there should be something there, because it was false information given to residents, and it was intimidation as well,” Simms told the Guardian.
“My biggest issue is I really think, given four helicopters landing in the park, a lot of residents were wondering what the noise was, thinking something was wrong. They should have been letterdropped.”
Mahajer is not yet out of hot water. Police are reportedly investigating firearms offences relating to a replica gun allegedly in his possession, and Labor councillor George Campbell is pursuing Mehajer’s position on the council, which allows him – and others in similar positions – to debate and vote on developments from which he will profit. Mehajer is set to pocket $45m if his plans for a current development are successful.
Campbell labelled Mehajer a “rogue councillor” and dismissed the wedding as in poor taste.
“There was an explosion of narcissism and the whole thing was quite tacky,” Campbell told the Guardian. “It looked like desperately trying to purchase sophistication.”
“They can be as tacky as they like, except for one thing,” he added. “He’s really pushing this kind of an image and he’s doing it as a councillor, as a deputy mayor. It’s caused a lot of people to ridicule him … but it flows on to the council. People are judging the council like this.”
Jeannette Francis, a presenter on SBS TV program The Feed, attended her sister’s wedding, also in Sydney, on the same day. The event was (obviously) smaller, but included a “gorgeous outdoor ceremony” that still had “all the fanfare of a big Lebanese wedding”, Francis told the Guardian.
Everybody’s entitled to have an opinion on other people’s very public displays of weddingness
TV presenter Jeannette Francis
She didn’t agree that Mehajer’s over-the-top affair would lead to negative stereotypes of Sydney’s Lebanese community, which was something Campbell had suggested to the Guardian.
“I don’t know too many Lebanese Australians who would have helicopters and jets and red carpets and all the rest of that stuff, and have a terrible pre-wedding video in the same way that he did,” she laughed.
“Not to that extent anyway. And look, if you think that’s tacky then that’s your opinion. Everybody’s entitled to have an opinion on other people’s very public displays of weddingness.”
The concurrent weddings shared some traditional elements, including loud public displays such as the drumming outside the house.
“The house is decorated, the drumming and dancing spills out onto the streets, there’s sometimes a cavalcade of cars and in some instances they will just beep all the way to the church,” she said. “You could be passing multiple suburbs and it’s just a very public display of happiness.”
The difference in Mehajer’s do – and what has captured the country’s attention – is of course the exaggeration of such traditions. “There’s elements of traditionality that have been taken to quite an extreme. His case is an extreme case of those things being taken to an extreme,” she said.
Meanwhile Mehajer remains relentlessly unapologetic, posting social media pictures and statements communicating just how much he is bothered by the anger – that is to say: not at all.
He told local media he and his wife were laughing off the attention.
“I don’t ever allow negative comments to get to me and indeed I enjoyed one of the greatest moments of my life with one of the most important people in my life, my wife,” he told newspaper the Parramatta Advertiser.
“There is nothing to be jealous of, strive hard and work hard, and anyone is capable of success.”
On Thursday afternoon, amid numerous photos of the couple decorated with romantic statements, Mehajer promised a media release would be coming soon with “all the facts”.
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