Tammy Hembrow, pilates queen Bernadette Fahey and Caroline Tran have all recently tied the knot surrounded by scantily clad family and frenemies.
And now, Four Seasons condom heir Michael Porter and his Georgio Armani publicist husband, Billy Mitchell, have opened up about their own extravagant, socialite-laden 2023 wedding at 18th Century estate Villa del Balbianello in Lake Como.
The sumptuous location, which hosted some of Sydney’s biggest names for the event, is known for its elaborate terraced gardens, where films including James Bond Casino Royale and Star Wars were shot.
‘It was so crazy,’ Porter tells Daily Mail Australia of their 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, stylist Caroline Tran, and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson.
‘It got delayed and delayed because we weren’t allowed to travel overseas,’ Porter explains. ‘So we had a couple of years to work on it and it became this bigger than life extravaganza.’
Michael Porter – whose family owns Australia’s leading condom business, Four Seasons – said ‘I do’ to his long-time partner Billy Mitchell in July 2023
The couple’s three-day Italian extravaganza was attended by celebrities, models, business moguls, reality stars and influencers
Although chicken heir Jonny Ingham’s $2million Sicilian wedding to businesswoman Rey Vakili at was reportedly the most expensive of the 2023 season, and chicken heiress Tamie and her husband Guillaume Brahimi drew the most impressive guest list to their lavish Musée Rodin ceremony in the French capital, Porter and Mitchell’s wedding was dubbed ‘the most fun’ by attendees.
That’s no small feat when the Ingham family, who are worth an estimated $1.17billion, have some serious coin to throw at extravagant recovery parties, among other bells and whistles.
‘It was quite, quite fun and very exciting,’ Porter says. ‘I mean, there was so much anticipation build up to it that the actual day like went absolutely off.
‘Around 10.30pm, this huge once-in-one-hundred-year electrical hailstorm came through,’ he says.
‘And it was just at the end of the ceremony, which is lucky. So we’re sort of mid-way through the reception and this storm came off and hit everything like fireworks, with lightning bolts striking all around, and massive hailstones falling down.
‘It was a seriously cinematic experience. We couldn’t have planned for it. We were being yelled at to run for our lives. It was so insane.’
Videos posted to social media showed Married at At First Sight lovebirds Martha Kalifatidis and Michael Brunelli, Ingham chicken heirs Tamie and Johnny and their respective newlywed partners literally partying in 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
Swimwear mogul Natasha Oakley and liquor heir Theo Chambers attended the wedding, two weeks after getting married themselves in Capri
Bridget Malcolm, from Perth, is known for appearing in Victoria’s Secret Fashion Shows
‘Half the wedding party got escorted up to the observatory of Villa del Balbianello, where the venue was, and then the other half got moved to like the dungeons of the villa. We all basically grabbed a bottle of champagne on the way up there.’
Guests were given a strict marching orders to wear ball gowns or tuxedos befitting an international benefit gala.
‘Everyone was completely wrecked. The girls were all in their long gowns with long trains, literally sporting the full “wet” look because they were totally soaked in the rain,’ Porter says.
‘After that we all ended up getting access to the villa by water, so we all then had to get on these boats during this insane storm to basically evacuate us from the wedding venue that we then went back into town in this like local dive bar and just carried on from there, which was a lot of fun.
‘It was definitely the highlight. I’ll never forget that night. It was absolutely incredible.’
Michael, the co-founder of beauty label Skin Control, also revealed his own favourite society weddings in recent memory.
He praised Caroline Tran’s recent wedding at Mimi’s in Coogee and said he counts bikini mogul Tash Oakley’s beach club recovery party as one of the ‘best days’ of his entire life.
Porter’s only word of advice to newlyweds-to-be in the throes of wedding planning panic is to ‘run your own race.’
Monday swimwear founder Tash Oakley (left) and Michael Porter sunning themselves at her wedding recovery party, after she married liquor heir Theo Chambers on June 30, 2023
One week before Porter and Mitchell’s wedding, the engaged couple attended Tash Oakley and Theo Chamber’s ceremony and raucous recovery party at beach club La Fontalina in Capri
‘Don’t try and conform to any trends or what anyone else is doing. We just did what was true to us and really leant into what felt authentic.’
Jackie O joined the throng of rich-listers making their annual migration to the northern hemisphere in July, raising a few eyebrows among Sydney’s ultra-exclusive elite.
Porter revealed his connection to the queen of Sydney radio.
‘So my brother-in-law used to work with her, at a previous radio station I think,’ he explains.
‘They’ve stayed in touch and become good friends, and I believe they’re working together on a couple of new ventures now, which is exciting. She’s super lovely.’
Jackie O saw her former colleague, Chris Ledlin, wed Michael’s younger brother Alexander, in a three-day celebration on Cap Ferrat in France.
Ledlin is a strategic partnerships lead at YouTube and Google Australia, who was formerly Head of Content Strategy and Commercialisation at the Nine Network, and Southern Cross Austereo’s social media director.
Porter, meanwhile, got his start at advertising agencies Ogilvy and MC Saatchi after completing his marketing degree.
Sydney radio star Jackie ‘O’ Henderson cozies 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’ set by Chris Ledlin, who married into the Porter family by way of Michael’s brother Alexander. ‘She’s super lovely,’ he said
Michael Porter is the co-founder of affordable skincare brand Skin Control, whose primary product is celebrity-endorsed pimple patches
As a teen, he said he’d always suffered from bad breakouts and desperately wanted to find something ‘that actually works.’
Sitting in a skincare technology conference in New York circa 2018, it dawned on him that no one had brought pimple patches to Australia.
‘I came back to Sydney and designed the first concepts for Skin Control, starting with our pimple patch range,’ he says.
Porter’s parents, who have been training him into their multi-million dollar fast moving consumer goods business (FMCG) since the cradle, told him to ‘get to work.’
And Just Like That… ‘We’re now selling one product every seven seconds or less, which is just wild to me,’ he says. ‘Mind blowing.’
Ironically, Porter says influencer and celebrity endorsements have very little impact on that figure compared to nuts-and-bolts ‘boring’ marketing.
‘Making sure the products going on sale at the right price, at the right time, and are actually on the shelves throughout the country – that’s it.’
While his business motto is ‘attainable and accessible,’ his jet setting work-hard play-hard lifestyle certainly isn’t.
An average day for the CEO begins at 5.30am in his Elizabeth Bay abode – with a ‘quick plunge in the harbour’, followed by a gym session or Pilates class, or a run with his golden retriever, Lulu.
‘From there, I’ll head into our office and warehouses over in Lanco Park, and through the day we’ll have meetings with internal teams, PR, supply partners, events….’ followed by as many as three high-flying social engagements in a single evening.
‘But if we don’t have events we’re total homebodies.’
