Just as the fashion trends, we have even seen wedding trends evolving year after year from outfits to decor and entertainment ideas, the celebrations are becoming more and more about couple and more personalized than ever before. The Indian wedding has transformed into a lavish affair. Everything from the venue, to the decorations, to the food has to be the best. And this has created a industry of 2.5 lakh crore industry. Interestingly allied industries such as beauty and fitness and photography are also benefiting from the surge in spending while exchanging vows. Irrespective of economic downturns, weddings remain a stable business as it is a once in a lifetime event for most people in india. The stability and rapid growth in the business of marriage is what promted people to diversify into wedding planning, moving beyond floral decoration to invitation cards to catering to entertainment and photography etc.
The Indian wedding industry is arguably very dynamic and is a constantly evolving one. What it has evolved into, now is a reflection of changing tastes, social moves, exposure and lifestyle choices of Indian consumers. The modern Indian couple is now increasingly involved in the planning process and the family has far less influence on the event. Hosts and guest alike are in a race to live well, party hard and dress trendy for the occasion, all this in keeping with prevailing lifestyle trends. This is thus reflected in changing fashion choices for brides and groom, evolving food habits as indicated by the caterers and even more evolved sensibilities with regard to decor and design. By 2003-04 farmhouse marriages were catching. And the business of wedding was the most lucurative proposition. The fee for making weddings memorable is quite steep. wedding planners charge 5- 10 percent of the wedding budget as consultation fee. This means a Rs. 2 crore wedding will leave the planner richer by Rs. 5-10 lakhs. while for the most upper class people wedding budgets start at Rs. 60- 90 lakhs it can go upto Rs. 10-25 Crores for the industrialists and businessmen. Rising Marriage Trends In india while weddings were a simplier affair about a decade ago, economic liberalisation and rise of middle class has promoted a change in attitudes. In india people are spending a lot of money on weddings.
Gradually, the trend of hiring a planner is growing with most people busy with their career and the joint family system declining, there is neither time nor the manpower to organise big weddings. The nuclear family system has made it almost impossible for the people to make elaborate arrangements for weddings without professional help. Hindu weddings are spread over five days, including gujrati, Marwari and Punjabi marriages. Christian weddings last just a day, requiring decoration of the church and catering service. And yet Christian weddings too are a big business for planners. A lot of people are now working abroad. Their parents are alone in india. They are not even familiar with possible venues for weddings. So they want one stop solution for everything from cards to photographers to location, decoration, floral decoration, lighting, mandap decoration, mehndiwala, beautician, catering, venue arrangements, guests stay, etc.
So basically from pin to plane they want that everything should be taken care and everything should be up to the mark. Over the past few years clients are requesting for more detailed orientation for extremely different weddings. while going to places like dubai, bali, Singapore is still catching up in india, jaipur ,Udaipur and goa are popular destinations. since a lot of people now prefer to combine wedding with holidays, destination marriages are in. Most functions take place at these destinations with a smaller group of people. There is usually final reception back home for all the other guests. This allows clients to have a more memorable intimate celebration with the family and friends. A destination wedding in jaipur for 225 people could cost easily cost Rs. 1- 1.5 crores and more. In contrast farmhouse weddings works out cheaper and are appropriate when the guest list has more than 500 people. This is because their is no expense on flying down people and arranging for the stay.
Popular destinations are focusing more on weddings to make money. The palace in Udaipur arranges not only the doli for the bride but also camels, horses, elephants and drummers and dancers. By spending few crores they can include bollywood stars and sangeet ceremony can have famous bollywood singers. Everything can be customized from cutelery to tables to buffet linen, lighting, background etc. Pre engagement shoot is the new in thing which allow couples to have exquisite shots of themselves which they will cherish forever. You can choose exactly what kind of photos you want, the props, the dresses & even the location are picks theme around which the photographers works, cute couple pictures for instagram. Speaking of themes, infact every event is now themed. From mughal inspied to modern contemporary vibes, the options are endless. Imagine walking into a classy engagement where everyone is colour coordinated with the brides pink gown. Enter the bridal showers, mehendi parties ,bachelor parties and colour fests, where you can let loose and have fun with your buddies one last time. Dj’s, band music, choreographed dance moves to even innovative games, they have it all.
