India’s billion-dollar wedding industry is gearing up for a busy few months ahead

After over two years of sporadic glitz, glamour and glitter, the wedding industry in India is racing towards a profitable end-of-the-year finish

Tanisha Ahuja (name changed on request), 30, is quite blase in retrospect when discussing the postponement of her wedding celebrations. “I mean, Yohann and I are already married. And we had a lovely, intimate affair in Vienna. What’s pending though, are larger celebrations in Mumbai and New Delhi for our friends and family,” she tells The Established. Ahuja, who started recounting her wedding saga, feeling miserable, lightened up a thousand shades when discussing the details of her intimate wedding. After two years of planning, endless meetings, Zoom calls and recces, Ahuja and her family decided to postpone the larger wedding reception indefinitely. “It was crazy; we had guests coming in from the United Kingdom and the United States and we needed to take a call as [COVID-19] cases were rising rapidly.” Ahuja is referring to the period between late 2021 and early 2022 when the pandemic continued raising its ugly head with its Omicron variant.

For Ahuja and her family, the timing was unfortunately off but the wedding industry in India, comprising planners, event managers, designers, production staff, the hospitality industry, photographers and many more, is finally breathing a sigh of relief. The winter of 2022 looks like it will be a financially stable one for the shaadi industry.

Band, baaja, baraat: facts and figures

A largely unorganised industry, the great Indian shaadi bazaar has been frequently estimated at more than US$50 billion, but this is an old figure and the segment begs a review of the same. One should keep in mind that the US$50 billion figure is a pre-COVID one. A research paper states that there are over 1,500 matrimony websites in India, and while detailing the results of traffic on matchmaking apps and websites, the study states that the top three matrimony websites in the country include Jeevansaathi.com, which saw a 30 per cent growth in new user acquisitions year-on-year; Shaadi.com, witnessing a traffic surge of 15-20 per cent on its platform as compared to the pre-COVID period; and BharatMatrimony.com, which reported a 30 per cent increase in registrations. India’s matchmaking market is valued at US$184 million and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10 per cent to reach US$269 million by 2024. These are all clear indications that a majority of Indians believe in the institution of marriage.

Earlier this year, wedding portal WedMeGood conducted a survey of 3,000 users over a period of three months on how the scale, size and preferences of weddings has changed. Weddings held between January 2021 and January 2022 were covered, in which 83 per cent of those surveyed said they went ahead with their original wedding dates, regardless of the pandemic. Only six-seven per cent of users said they spent less on wedding wear and jewellery, while nine-ten per cent said they reduced spends on photography and make-up. Around 80 per cent of the vendors surveyed said at least 30 per cent of their business had been affected. Getting married during the pandemic saw 25-30 per cent respondents choose outdoor venues. Around 60 per cent of surveyed users wanted large weddings with over 200 guests in attendance. The best news was perhaps for the jewellery segment that reported a jump of a whopping 79 per cent in 2021, owing to a huge pent-up demand and general improvement in buyer sentiment, said the World Gold Council (WGC).

With the rise in fuel prices, overall costs in the last two years have escalated as well. Parthip Thyagarajan, CEO, WeddingSutra, told The Established that popular wedding destinations such as Rajasthan, Goa, Lonavala, Alibag, Karjat, Mahabalipuram and Silliguri have seen a surge in rentals, room rates and minimum guarantees. “Budgets for vendors have gone up significantly. Photographers, decorator, make-up artists etc. If you look at the pre-COVID scene, wedding costs even if it’s happening in India it’s gone up by 15-30 per cent more because of inflation. In 2022, a lot of weddings were postponed and vendors were and are unavailable on auspicious dates owing to high demand,” shares Thyagarajan. Wedding planner Shweta Mehta concurs, “Costs have gone up threefold.”

Learnings from the pandemic

If Martin Short’s role of a wedding planner in Father of the Bride (1991) had us in splits, the two wedding planners (played by Sobhita Dhulipala and Arjun Mathur) from the Amazon Prime show Made in Heaven (2019-ongoing) gave us a slice into the lives of big-ticket Indian weddings. For Ahuja, having a wedding planner was a boon. “Luckily, we are working with a planner who has helped us negotiate postponements to all the deals agreed to earlier,” she says.

Mehta, a planner who has been in the wedding business for 17 years–founded The Wedding Square along with three other partners, each of whom bring their expertise to the company and work across Mumbai, New Delhi and Dubai–says that a significant learning for them in the last two years has been that large-scale events can actually be sustainable. “We never understood that flowers can be taken [and reused]. We never knew that we can use sustainable materials that can be reused for a lot of things.” She cites the rise of other trends such as outdoor venues, destinations within India and the use of indegenous art and craft as a welcome change. “People have been motivated to make a change. There is a feeling that we need to invest in our own country by spending on Indian textiles, flowers and art.”

Another area that has been impacted greatly is that of printed wedding invitations, as invites are all digital now. “Very rarely do we see a printed card these days. Folks prefer to save the money and opt for digital invites; the money saved can be used for thank-you gifts instead,” shares Mehta.

Destination weddings forever?

Even as venues in India were zoomed in during the last two years, international destinations for weddings are opening up rapidly. “Greece is a prime destination right now, mainly for smaller weddings, around 150-200 people. Thailand and Bali, too, have opened up. There was a shift [towards the domestic venues], but the international destination scene is really going nuts,” shares Kunal Avanti, joint managing director and co-founder of Magnanimous, a luxury event firm based in Mumbai. Other popular destinations include Vietnam, the United Arab Emirates, south of France, Rajasthan and Kerala.

Floral designer Amrish Pershad, who also doubles–and triples–as a wedding singer and event planner, and began his career designing for Mira Nair’s film Monsoon Wedding (2001), has this observation: “I've noticed that people are now used to smaller events. They are avoiding inviting 7,500 guests for functions spread over five days. Instead, they keep the wedding small and plan a holiday with the family and close friends overseas.”

Happily ever afters

One thing is clear, as Mehta points out–even if the wedding has been a small, scaled- down affair, what couples and families haven’t really skimped on is clothes and make-up. “It remains a special day for the people involved so whether it's make-up or jewellery or clothes, there is no compromise at all, be it a 50-guest affair or a 500 one.”

One of celebrity stylist Anaita Shroff Adajania’s recent assignments involved working with DLF Emporio and The Chankaya in New Delhi for their Couture Wedding event. Speaking from the event, Shroff Adajania articulated how the scale of weddings might have gone smaller but are as large as ever. “Earlier, weddings were so impersonal and so gigantic, there really was no soul to them. Now people are finding a balance; intimate ceremonies are in. I feel [organising] a massive wedding just for the sake of keeping everybody happy is on its way out.”

As for Ahuja, she’s now looking forward to finally having a party with her friends and extended family in Mumbai and New Delhi by the end of this year. “So what if we are celebrating a year later? We’ll still dance away!” she exclaims.

Also Read: Meet the unconventional brides breaking the rules with their wedding attire

Also Read: Why Sonam Babani chose Atelier Versace to design one of her wedding outfits

Also Read: What does the future of Indian weddings look like?