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Fairy-tale wedding will cost tech billionaire about $10 million

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SAN FRANCISCO — Even in the annals of over-the-top celebrity weddings, Sean Parker’s planned nuptials may take the cake.

The Facebook Inc. billionaire who also co-founded Napster is dropping nearly $10 million on a fairy-tale wedding in Big Sur that includes a whimsical fantasy world featuring faux ruins, waterfalls, bridges and a gated cottage, a person familiar with the plans said.

Just the stone dance floor in the woods surrounding the Ventana Inn & Spa will set the 34-year-old back $350,000, according to the website TMZ. The plants and flowers will cost $1 million.

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After a two-year engagement, Parker is marrying Alexandra Lenas, a singer and songwriter with whom he has a 2-month-old daughter, Winter Victoria.

Parker’s June wedding will be in stark contrast to that of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who married longtime girlfriend Priscilla Chan in a simple ceremony in their Palo Alto backyard in May 2012 in front of 100 guests who dined on food catered by the couple’s favorite local restaurants.

Parker’s guests will stay at the Ventana Inn and will dress in custom outfits designed by Ngila Dickson, the Academy Award-winning costume designer from “The Lord of the Rings.”

Save-the-date emails were sent out in March in the form of medieval-looking scrolls. “As you might imagine, this will not be a run of the mill wedding,” the email read.

Parker has denied the wedding garb will have a medieval or “Game of Thrones” theme as some speculated. The outfits, he said on Facebook, will be “modern suits and dresses with some elements of Victorian flair and whimsy.”

“This is NOT a theme wedding and there will be nothing ‘medieval’ about it,” he wrote.

Parker, who served as Facebook’s president in its early days, has been a prominent figure in technology circles since he co-founded Napster in 1999 with Shawn Fanning. He rose to superstardom when he was portrayed by Justin Timberlake in “The Social Network,” the 2010 film about Zuckerberg and the creation of Facebook.

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Last year Parker teamed again with Fanning to create Airtime, a much-hyped video startup. Despite a splashy, celebrity-studded debut, Airtime failed to gain a following. Parker has moved the company to New York with the goal of relaunching it.

jessica.guynn@latimes.com

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