India may not be among the top nations regarding per capita income, but per capita wedding spending tells an entirely different story. During the wedding season, which typically starts in October and sees a confluence of good weather and auspicious dates, we tell you how much Indians spend and where to showcase the grandeur and opulence of matrimony.

From elaborate ceremonies that last a couple of hours to multiple functions spread across weeks and even months to mark a marriage, Indian weddings are nothing without extravagance. Rooted in cultural and societal factors, weddings are not just an event planned to mark a happy occasion but an opportunity to showcase the affluence of the families involved.

As per a KPMG report, an Indian will likely spend one-fifth of his lifetime wealth on a wedding. The cost of a wedding ranges. Most reports peg it at a starter pack of US$ 15,000, but as was recently witnessed at the wedding of India's richest family, it can also go up to an eye-popping US$ 600 million! That's how much an Indian billionaire is said to have spent on his son's wedding, which was spread not across a couple of days but months! But US$ 15,000 is a large amount. It is 5x India's per capita GDP.

The cost of an average Indian wedding: US$ 15,000

India's per capita GDP: less than US$ 3,000

A global comparison of wedding spends to GDP per capita pegs India at the highest ratio.

India: 5.1x

Spain: 0.7x

Brazil: 0.6x

Italy: 0.6x

USA: 0.4x

Source: Jefferies

The Indian wedding industry is estimated to be worth around US$ 130 billion, as per Jefferies. The money funnels through several segments of the Indian economy, formal and informal, from wedding planners to caterers, and is crucial to the economy.

Where does the money go?

Around 8-10 million weddings take place in India. A considerable portion of the wedding budget depends on the number of guests, followed by the choice of venue and jewellery. It is not uncommon to have more than 500 people attend an Indian wedding. The size of the venue and, consequently, its cost, the catering bill are directly proportionate to the number of guests. Apart from this, fine Indian clothing has unique, intricate work that adds to the bills, photography, and entertainment. But this is just the average Indian wedding with the basic requirements. The luxury segment involves booking celebrity entertainment, which costs worth a king's ransom, or jetting your guests to a private island booked in its entirety for your festivities.

Some of the Categories where the spending is the highest:

Jewelry: US$ 35-40 billion

Catering: US$ 5.9 billion

Events: US$ 18-20 billion

Photography: US$ 10-12 billion

Apparel: US$ 9-10 billion

Decor: US$ 9-10 billion

Other: US$ 20-25 billion

Source: Jefferies

Seasonality plays a huge role in India's wedding industry as couples and their families prefer holding the ceremony on specific auspicious dates in a year. These dates usually fall between October and can go on until July, but most weddings occur between mid-November and January.

Where does the money come from?

Comparing the cost of an average Indian wedding with the stats of an average Indian family conjures the question of how weddings are financed. Indian families allocate a portion of their savings and invest them in various tools with one goal - to pay for their child's marriage. A survey says that Indians spend twice as much on weddings as they do on education.

Such is the societal pressure to stage an opulent wedding production that people opt for financing. Indian banks and financial institutions widely offer wedding loans and wedding financing products. This category is a relabelling of personal loans being offered by lenders.

Could the party stop?

While some couples opt for more straightforward, intimate receptions, that percentage is small. Opulence and magnanimity are similes to weddings. Interestingly, there have been past attempts by Indian politicians to curb the expenditure via legislative bills, presumably in the interest of promoting healthy household fiscal habits, but those have been unsuccessful. The most recent bill was the Prevention of Wasteful Expenditure on Special Occasions Bill, 2020, which had some interesting provisions, including a cap on the number of guests, the value of the gift and the number of dishes served. The bill is yet to see the light of day.

The industry's size motivates new-age entrepreneurs to create innovative businesses to cash in. Online matchmaking platforms, online wedding aggregators, and wedding PR firms are now cropping up and creating demand for services that didn't exist a generation ago. Even OTT platform Netflix couldn't resist the lure of India's wedding industry as it produced the famous "Indian Matchmaking Show" with "Sima Aunty" becoming a household name.

Whilst splurging such a large chunk of one's wealth on a one-time occasion may not make much fiscal sense, the Indian wedding industry is peculiar and crucial to the economy given the several touchpoints with a variety of sectors, formal and informal. Such is the size of the industry that Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged Indians to 'Wed in India' to redirect the billions spent by couples at destination weddings abroad back home—a sensible message for the good of the economy. Until couples change their mindset on wedding spending, the Indian economy will dance to the tune of the Indian wedding drums.

 

 

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