Amanda Staveley seals her biggest deal
She reportedly turned down Prince Andrew, and on Saturday Middle Eastern dealmaker Amanda Staveley rejected Mehrdad Ghodoussi twice before accepting him as her new husband at an opulent Buckinghamshire wedding.
The acceptance on the third time of asking – as is customary in Iranian tradition – was one of two marriage ceremonies at the union of the PCP Capital Partners fixer and the Dubai-based investment banker at West Wycombe Park.
The first, a UK civil ceremony, took place in a tent bedecked with white roses, where Staveley’s father read from the novel Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. “Love is a temporary madness,” he began. Before concluding, more optimistically: “Those that truly love, have roots that grow towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two.”
The Capitalist likes to imagine that property tycoons Vincent and Robert Tchenguiz were wiping away the tears by this stage of the proceedings, while artist Tracey Emin no doubt admired the bride’s “exquisite” dress by Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen.
Also among the 500 guests in the “never-ending” series of wedding tents were Edward Oakden, an executive board member of UK Trade & Investments; Michael Edelson, the longest-serving director of Manchester United FC; and queen headhunter Carol Leonard of The Inzito Partnership; who enjoyed dinner and dancing until 2am – although the newly weds “slipped away quietly” just after midnight.