Marriage is the biggest event in life of a person thus people spend extravagantly without thinking of any return to make wedding the most memorable event of life. Elite gets a chance to show off their wealth whereas seeing this luxury, middle class often tries to imitate and stretch beyond their limits. Such profligate celebrations are the result of increasing disposable income of middle class families in India. It is expected that in coming five to ten years, marriage industry in India is going to be very massive because nearly 50% of Indian population is comprised of marriageable youth below the age of 29. Further push to wedding industry will be given by the expected threefold increase in per capita income.
Presently, India is a home to near about 1.25 billion people and even 12,000 wedding takes place in a day (during some unique auspicious days) or 10 million marriages in a year. Total purchase of gold falls between 300 to 400 tons annually. If all the expenditure is included then Indian marriage market becomes Rs 1 lakh crore to Rs 300,000 crore annually. A family spends approximately one fifth of the savings or sometimes the entire on a wedding ceremony opening opportunities for retailers and other marriage related business in India. Even the online portals like Shadi.com, Bharatmatrimony.com are making huge annual revenues of Rs 200-250 crore. Wedding planners are increasing in number and making huge business.
Some facts about wedding market in India
- Total estimated worth of Indian wedding market is Rs 100,000 to Rs 110,000 crore
- Gold or any kind of jewellery is essential from small to big fat wedding in India. This makes gold and diamond jewellery worth Rs 60,000 crore.
- Wedding dresses for bride and groom, designer wear for the entire family comes the next and impossible to be ignored for a marriage. Thus worth of wedding apparel market is Rs 10,000 crore. One gets bridal designer saree/lenhga at a cost between Rs 10,000 to 50,000 and designer shervani cost between Rs 15,000 to Rs 40,000
- Cost of wedding in metropolitan cities is between Rs 25 lakh to 70 lakh
- Families send invitation cards with sweets to their friends and relatives making both invites and sweets a part of ever burgeoning wedding market in India. Annual worth of wedding invitation card market is Rs 10,000 crore and Rs 500 to Rs 1500 per card.
- Bride without mehendi is incomplete in India. Hence during peak season the rate of mehendi increases and a single bridal mehendi costs between Rs 1000 to Rs 5000. Total worth of bridal mehendi market in India is Rs 5,000 crore.
- Worth of pandal and venue decoration market is Rs 10,000 crore and per wedding cost of it is Rs 10,000.
- Goa and Jaipur are the two major spot for destination wedding. Wedding cost at Jaipur is 1 to 2 crore whereas wedding cost at Goa is between 1 to 1.5 crore.
- Wedding dinner cost from Rs 700 to 1,500 per person.
- All the brides prefer parlor for getting ready on their D day as they want to look beautiful just like a celebrity. The cost of bridal makeup ranges between Rs 5,000 to Rs 50,000.
Each year Indian wedding market is getting bigger and bigger. Basic pandal and decoration has been replaced by more flashy decorations. Instead of home, people now prefer farm houses or wedding palaces for wedding purposes. They want replicas of palaces, and temples for wedding decoration. This provides huge opportunity to decorators.
Wedding cuisines are no longer the same and sail smoothly with the concept of ‘we want different’. So apart from Indian regional cuisines, intercontinental, Lebanese to Italian cuisines are in demand for marriages these days.
Marriage is also giving business to many other branches like travel and tourism. Newly wedded couples search for exotic and romantic places for honeymoon in India. Cruise to Lakshwadeep has been started by Start Cruises especially for honeymooners. Friends and family arrange special honeymoon packages as well.
Time constraint and need of more managed and professional wedding has created wedding planners. Most of the middle class and almost all the upper class marriages are managed by wedding planners.
Gurgaon got its first wedding mall in India for bringing everything associated with marriage under one roof. More wedding malls have been planned for the country.
People have become brand conscious and can go to any extent as far as look for the D day is concerned. Apparel and cosmetic market is booming because of this. Indian wedding is also incomplete without Djs, Dhols, lightening, etc. Worth of this segment is Rs 5,000 crore annual. Rs 2,000 to 10,000 goes for flower decoration per marriage.
So wedding in India is now just not limited to clothes and jewellery but extended to decoration, more elaborate food. Big fat Indian weddings even include performance of celebrities. Destination wedding and theme wedding are gaining importance as these really make the marriage unique.
Marriage industry can be called recession proof as even during recession this industry stood at huge figure of $25 billion. Banks are now giving personal loans exclusively for marriage. From future estimates it is obvious that Indian wedding industry is growing and going to be very big.
