With the first breeze of winter, the wedding season has also arrived in our country. It’s no exaggeration to say that when it comes to weddings, we Indians who are otherwise so cost-conscious throughout our lives, love spending big to make the event unforgettable. Come on, we are all Bollywood fans and to have that one special time in our lives to look straight from the sets of a dreamland, the tendency to go over budget is common across all income groups. However, the winds have shifted in recent times and now the ones having the means want to model their weddings in the template of Deepika-Ranveer, Anushka-Virat, or at least some elements of it. Thus with the beats of band baaja start the paise udana, metaphorically and more often than not literally.
Well, this wedding season that starts on the 12th of November has 18 auspicious dates to accommodate nearly 48 lakh – yes, 48 lakh, that means 98 lakh people will tie knots over the next month and a half. This marks a significant jump from the previous year’s by 35 lakh weddings with 11 dates. And this year, like all previous years since people have been spending fortunes to make their weddings a luxurious extravaganza, we have found some astonishing numbers looking at which one feels, “Itna paisa hai logon ke paas? Duniya mein?
1. The number of brides and grooms
No matter how many times we hear the magic number of 140 crore being the number of people in our country, it still feels unfathomable to imagine that nearly 1 crore people will get married in the next 34 days. As pointed out by an X user, this number is more than the population of more than 95 countries in the world!
2. “Show me the money“
According to a report named ‘Band, Baaja, Baarat and Markets’ by Prabhudas Lilladhe,’ the wedding industry is expected to generate ₹4.25 lakh crore expenditure during this period. Yeah, keep counting those zeroes. To put things into perspective, Mukesh Ambani’s net worth is approximately Rs 9.1 lakh Crores, nearly just twice, almost there.
3. Biggest wedding market in the world? Wait, China?!
I know, I was also really surprised to see, humse zyada kaun paisa udaa raha hai? As it turns out, our neighbours China have a bigger market size than us, but hey, we are almost twice as big as the US, so yeah, welcome NRI cousins.
4. In the numbers though, nobody beats us in shaadis
Well, it’s tough to beat us in the game of population and especially desi parents’ unwavering desire to see their pota-potis. As per investment banking and capital market firm Jefferies, India hosts the highest number of weddings in the world each year.
5. A billion-dollar industry of a billion people
India’s wedding industry is estimated to have grown to $130 billion, second only to food and groceries in terms of consumption, according to the Jefferies report. It also says that nearly 50 percent of all the jewellery bought in India is in bridal theme.
6. Education<<<Weddings?
The Jefferies report states that an average Indian family spends Rs 12 lakh on a wedding. Guess what they spent on educating their from pre-school to college child for 18 years? It’s around Rs 6 lakh. Compare it to America, the wedding/education spend ratio is only 0.5x for public education and 0.1x for private education. Well, priorities.
7. Pushing the limits
The average spending of 12 lakh on a wedding is actually three times their yearly income of Rs 4 lakh.
Out of these estimated 48 lakh weddings, the majority of them, about 40 lakh will be in the budget weddings category, which will range between Rs 3 lakh to Rs 15 lakh. Around 50,000 weddings will be luxurious with a spend of Rs 1 crore or more. Again, how much money do people have?!
8. Happily ever after… for some industries
According to a Ministry of Commerce and Industry report, the Indian wedding industry is responsible for providing jobs to nearly 1 crore people. This includes professions like caterers, decorators, photographers and videographers, make-up artists, wedding planners, and musicians.
9. Hard to beat Ambanis, especially at weddings
When Isha Ambani got married to Anand Piramal in a multi-city celebration that spanned nearly a week and cost an estimated ₹700 crore ($100 million), the world was left with an open mouth. However, the recent Anant-Radhika was to topple all records in wedding spending in the world. The pre-wedding festivities alone were estimated to have cost approximately INR 1260 crore.
10. If crashing a wedding is your thing, you better hurry
This wedding season, there’s little chance of you putting on the calories because the number of weddings you will be rushing to would keep them in check, better put on your running shoes for all the functions.
