Liz Hurley and her new husband, Arun Nayar, are expected to arrive in Bombay today, with hundreds of celebrity friends in tow, for the Indian leg of their wedding festivities.

Ms Hurley and Mr Nayar, whose English wedding took place at Sudeley Castle, Gloucestershire, on Saturday, are due to attend a series of receptions in Bombay, the Indian film and financial capital.

They will decamp to the city of Jodhpur, Rajasthan, on Wednesday for more receptions, culminating in a traditional Indian wedding at the 15th-century Meherangarh Fort.

Media access is restricted because the couple have sold the coverage rights to Hello! magazine. The highlight of the Bombay festivities is expected to be a haldi reception thrown by Parmeshwar Godrej, the wife of Adi Godrej, who is one of the richest Indian tycoons and an old friend of the Nayars.

Haldi is Hindi for turmeric, which in many parts of India is traditionally applied to the bride and groom’s faces before their wedding to make their skin look more healthy. There is also talk of a traditional Hindu mehndi ceremony, in which the women of the party have their hands and feet decorated with henna.

The dress code is “glamorous casual” for the first night in Bombay, and “very glamorous black tie” for the second. It is said that the couple are setting up a wedding shop in the Hilton Towers hotel, Bombay, where guests can buy sarees and turbans for the Jodhpur celebrations. The dress code is hot pink sarees for women and red turbans for men.

In Jodhpur the bride and groom and most guests will be staying at the Umaid Bhawan Palace. The Art Deco complex, completed in 1943, is the seat of the Maharajah of Jodhpur, Gaj Singh, 59. The bride and groom will stay in his private quarters, while the guests will stay in the 347-room hotel, which has been fully booked from March 7 to March 10.

Wedding planners say that the Hurley-Nayar festivities will be the biggest of the year so far in India but question whether they will be bettered by the marriage of the Bollywood superstars Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan, also in Rajasthan this month.

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