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05/05/00 HOTEL VANCOUVER, VANCOUVER, BC, CANADA Venture
capitalist Jamie King has made scads of cash from the boom in Internet stocks.
So when he got married to Christie Darbyshire, he decided to spare no expense.
Bryan Adams was flown in to provide musical entertainment. Roses were flown
in from Ecuador and Holland to decorate the ballroom of the Hotel Vancouver. A
Yaletown boutique was converted into a disco and casino so guests could boogie
till 4 a.m.
The end result wasn't a mere wedding, it was an event, a Really
Big Do that has the Vancouver elite abuzz. The cost: about $500,000.
The
31-year-old King and 25-year-old Darbyshire tied the knot in a small ceremony
in Cabo San Lucas April 29, then threw the reception for 400 at the Hotel Vancouver
Friday night.
"I wanted to have a party," says King. "My companies
have been very successful. I've raised over $100 million US in venture capital
funding for companies in the last two years."
The couple are expecting
their first child this fall, and chose to celebrate in style. Adams opened an
hour-long set with his hit ballad, Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman, and a pair
of female dance troupes performed with a second band, Dr. Strangelove.
The
reception took over the Hotel Vancouver's convention floor, and featured a waterfall,
sculpted topiaries, and an ice sculpture more than a metre high of a vase with
an enormous floral arrangement.
"It was the most beautiful thing I've
ever worked on, and I've been doing this for over 30 years," said florist
Hilary Miles. "It was a florist's dream wedding."
Indeed.
Miles says 4,000 soft pink roses were used to decorate the reception, along with
500 lilacs, 500 peonies, 500 lily of the valley, 500 chartreuse snowball viburnum,
and a seemingly endless expanse of smilax, "an incredibly lush bright green
garland from Florida."
The bride was resplendent in a wedding gown from
Ron et Normand, Vancouver's elite dressmakers. The gown was made from silk and
Duchess satin, and was hand-embroidered with 3500 Swarovski crystals.
She
was also wearing a diamond tiara and necklace that was rumoured to have cost $1
million.
"She was glittering," said a guest. "My girlfriend
and I couldn't believe the diamonds. It was unbelievable."
The opulence
has given rise to all sorts of rumours and speculation. But King says the diamonds
were borrowed, and that Adams was paid $208,000 US, not $500,000 as was reported
in other media.
King declined to say how much he's worth, but will say he
"has made a lot of money on a [Internet] company called CMGI," which
has "gone from the equivalent of $40 to $1,700 after all the [stock] splits
in a year and a-half."
King is a former competitive swimmer with the
Canadian Dolphins who almost made it to the 1988 Olympics.
"I was third
in the Olympic trials, and they took the first two." His wife founded the
firm Paragon Events. They met on a flight to New York two years ago. | | |
