Tammy Hembrow, Pilates queen Bernadette Fahey and Caroline Tran recently tied the knot surrounded by scantily clad family members and enemies.
And now, Four Seasons condom heir Michael Porter and his publicist Georgio Armani husband Billy Mitchell have opened up about their own extravagant, socialite-laden wedding in 2023 at the 18th-century Villa del Balbianello estate in Lake Como.
The sumptuous venue, which hosted some of Sydney’s biggest names for the event, is known for its elaborate terraced gardens, where films such as James Bond Casino Royale and Star Wars were filmed.
“It was crazy,” Porter tells Daily Mail Australia of her big day.
Porter and Mitchell, who originally planned to marry in 2020, are entrenched in Sydney’s elite social scene, with their guests including bikini model Natasha Oakley and liquor heir Theo Chambers, socialite Nadia Fairfax-Wayne, hairstylist Caroline Tran and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson. .
“It became increasingly delayed because we weren’t allowed to travel abroad,” Porter explains. “So we had a couple of years to work on it and it became a larger than life show.”
Michael Porter, whose family owns Australia’s leading condom business, Four Seasons, said “I do” to his long-term partner, Billy Mitchell, in July 2023.
The couple’s three-day Italian show was attended by celebrities, models, business moguls, reality stars and influencers.
Although chicken heir Jonny Ingham’s $2 million Sicilian wedding to businesswoman Rey Vakili was reportedly the most expensive of the 2023 season, with chicken heiress Tamie and her husband Guillaume Brahimi attracting the list of guests at their lavish ceremony at the Rodin Museum in the French capital, Porter and Mitchell’s wedding was rated “the most fun” by attendees.
That’s no small feat when the Ingham family, worth an estimated $1.17 billion, has plenty of money to throw at extravagant get-well parties, among other bells and whistles.
“It was very, very fun and very exciting,” Porter says. ‘I mean, there was so much anticipation that the day itself was completely gone.
“Around 10:30 p.m. there was a large electrical hailstorm that occurs once every hundred years,” he says.
And it was right at the end of the ceremony, which is lucky. So we were in the middle of the reception and this storm came through and hit everything like fireworks, with lightning hitting everywhere and huge hailstones falling.
‘It was a truly cinematic experience. We couldn’t have planned it. They shouted at us to run for our lives. “It was crazy.”
Videos posted on social media showed Married at First Sight lovebirds Martha Kalifatidis and Michael Brunelli, Ingham chicken heirs Tamie and Johnny, and their respective newlywed partners literally partying on the streets of Lake Como.
The couple had one of their best friends, Victoria’s Secret model Bridget Malcolm, officiate.
Four Seasons condom heir Michael Porter (right) and his husband Billy Mitchell (left) tied the knot in a lavish wedding in Lake Como, Italy, on Wednesday.
Swimsuit mogul Natasha Oakley and liquor heir Theo Chambers attended the wedding, two weeks after tying the knot in Capri.
Bridget Malcolm, from Perth, is known for appearing in the Victoria’s Secret fashion shows.
‘Half of the wedding party was escorted to the observatory of Villa del Balbianello, where the wedding venue was, and then the other half was taken to the dungeons of the villa. Basically, we all had a bottle of champagne along the way.
Guests were given strict marching orders to wear ball gowns or tuxedos befitting an international charity gala.
‘Everyone was completely devastated. “All of the girls were wearing long dresses with long trains and they literally had a ‘wet’ look because they were completely soaked from the rain,” says Porter.
“After that, we all ended up having access to the villa by water, so we all had to get on these boats during this crazy storm to basically evacuate ourselves from the wedding venue and then head back into town at this local dive bar.” . and I just kept going from there, which was a lot of fun.
“It was definitely a highlight. I will never forget that night. “It was absolutely incredible.”
Michael, co-founder of beauty brand Skin Control, also revealed his favorite society weddings of late.
He praised Caroline Tran’s recent wedding at Mimi’s in Coogee and said he considers bikini mogul Tash Oakley’s beach club recovery party one of the “best days” of his entire life.
Porter’s only advice for soon-to-be newlyweds who find themselves in the throes of wedding planning panic is to “run your own race.”
Monday Swimsuits founder Tash Oakley (left) and Michael Porter soak up the sun at her wedding recovery party, after she married liquor heir Theo Chambers on June 30, 2023.
A week before Porter and Mitchell’s wedding, the engaged couple attended the ceremony and Tash Oakley and Theo Chamber’s raucous get-well party at La Fontalina beach club in Capri.
‘Don’t try to conform to any trends or what others are doing. “We just did what was true to us and really leaned into what felt authentic.”
Jackie O joined the crowd of wealthy people who made their annual migration to the northern hemisphere in July, raising some eyebrows among Sydney’s ultra-exclusive elite.
Porter revealed his connection to the Sydney radio queen.
“So my brother-in-law worked with her, I think before at a radio station,” he explains.
‘They’ve kept in touch and become good friends, and I think they’re now working on a couple of startups together, which is exciting. She’s super lovely.’
Jackie O watched her former colleague, Chris Ledlin, marry Michael’s younger brother, Alexander, in a three-day celebration in Cap Ferrat, France.
Ledlin is a strategic partnerships leader at YouTube and Google Australia, previously head of content strategy and marketing at Nine Network and director of social media at Southern Cross Austereo.
Meanwhile, Porter started at advertising agencies Ogilvy and MC Saatchi after completing his degree in marketing.
Sydney radio star Jackie ‘O’ Henderson walks up to Billy Mitchell and Michael Porter during his younger brother Alexander’s wedding to Chris Ledlin in Cap Ferrat, France, in July.
Jackie ‘O’ Henderson was introduced to Sydney’s “old money” thanks to Chris Ledlin, who married into the Porter family through Michael’s brother Alexander. “She’s super charming,” he said.
Michael Porter is co-founder of affordable skincare brand Skin Control, whose flagship product is celebrity-endorsed pimple patches.
As a teenager, she said she had always suffered from bad breakouts and desperately wanted to find something “that really worked.”
Sitting at a skincare technology conference in New York around 2018, he realized that no one had brought pimple patches to Australia.
“I returned to Sydney and designed the first concepts for Skin Control, starting with our range of pimple patches,” he says.
Porter’s parents, who have been training him in their multimillion-dollar fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) business since the cradle, told him to “get to work.”
And just like that… “We’re now selling a product every seven seconds or less, which is crazy to me,” he says. ‘Hallucinatory.’
Ironically, Porter says endorsements from influencers and celebrities have very little impact on that number compared to “boring” all-around marketing.
“Making sure products go on sale at the right price, at the right time and are actually on shelves across the country, that’s it.”
While their business motto is “attainable and accessible,” their work-hard-play-play lifestyle certainly isn’t.
A typical day for the CEO begins at 5.30am at his Elizabeth Bay home, with a “quick dip in the harbour”, followed by a gym session or a Pilates class, or a run with his golden retriever. , Lulu.
“From there, I will head to our office and warehouses in Lanco Park, and during the day we will have meetings with internal teams, public relations, supplier partners, events…”, followed by up to three senior executives. fly social commitments in a single night.
“But if we don’t have events, we’re totally homebodies.”