48 lakh weddings generating a revenue of INR 6 lakh crore: This wedding season is booked and busy!
Weddings in India are a festival in itself and with the end of the year around the corner—the festive time in the calendar extends to weddings too. Brace yourself.
We don’t know about you, but we love all things weddings—the clothes, the food, the drinks, the music, the dancing, the potential for a new crush—there’s nothing not to love. So we are on cloud nine given that the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has projected a whopping figure of 48 lakh weddings to take place across the country in November and December this year. How crazy is that? What’s more, these weddings, according to CAIT, are set to drive a massive ₹6 lakh crore in business.
In Delhi alone, around 4.5 lakh weddings are expected, contributing approximately ₹1.5 lakh crore to the local economy. As the wedding season kicks off in mid-November, vendors across India are bracing for a significant economic boost.
The aspects of weddings that people are splurging on have also seen a major shift in recent years. Vishal Punjabi, the founder of The Wedding Filmer, tells us, “While jewellery and decor remain significant, there’s a growing trend toward investing in videography. People are now realizing that, beyond the splendour of the day, it’s the memories captured on film that stay. High-quality wedding films bring families closer and offer a legacy that outlasts any physical element of the wedding. Increasingly, couples are prioritising storytelling, recognising that while jewellery may gather dust, and hospitality is for the few days and then it’s over… memories remain vivid through film.” We’re not surprised given that weddings in the time of social media are centred around pictures and videos that everybody wants to treasure for posterity.
Himanshu Patel, the founder of Epic Stories, who also covered Radhika and Anant Ambani’s Wedding, has a similar observation. He shares, “Today’s couples are prioritising capturing every unique moment of their big day, and it shows in their budgets. On average, people are spending around 7-10% of their wedding budget on photography and videography. For mid-sized weddings, that can be anywhere from ₹3-5 lakh, and for the grand, celebrity-level weddings, it can soar beyond ₹25 lakh.”
“He adds that photography costs are going up, and they are expected to further go up. “With inflation and rising demand, I’d say costs could easily see a 10-15% increase this season, as photographers bring in fresh ideas to meet these high expectations.”
Okay, now that it looks like the Indian wedding scene is going to be insane this year, make sure your outfits are ready, your go-to dance moves are rehearsed, and your metabolism is prepped.
Image credit: Epic Stories/ Instagram
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