India’s wedding industry: Elephants, Michelin stars and Mughal jewels make it a $130 billion business

New Delhi
CNN
—

This year’s wedding is coming up.

In less than a week, Anant Ambani, the son of Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, will marry his girlfriend Radhika Merchant. While lavish weddings are no stranger to India, the preparations and parties for this special occasion have captivated the nation.

The astonishing guest list, which included Silicon Valley billionaires and Bollywood stars, included Mukesh Ambani’s As their influence in the global economy grows, Asia’s richest families are also showing off their wealth. It displays jewels that evoke the distant times of Maharajas and Mughal Emperors.

The Ambani family has set a new standard for grand Indian weddings. As the numbers of the ultra-rich grow in the world’s fastest growing major economies, this voice will become louder and more vocal than ever before.

“The Ambani wedding party has had a multifaceted impact on the Indian wedding industry, influencing trends, boosting demand for wedding vendors, promoting cultural heritage and even driving economic growth,” Tim Chee, CEO of wedding planning service The Knot Worldwide, told CNN.

India’s wedding industry has boomed since the country emerged from the pandemic. It’s now estimated to be worth about $130 billion, nearly twice the size of the United States, according to a Jefferies report released last month, but still smaller than China’s.

“Indians are a values-driven society, but they love to spend money on weddings,” Jeffries says, “and this has nothing to do with economic class.”

The average wedding in India costs about $15,000, more than three times the average annual household income.

Weddings are expensive occasions in any country, but they are especially important in India as they symbolize power and status.

South Asian parents tend to spend a larger portion of their lifetime savings In the past, many Indians would hold weddings for their children, but with India’s rise as an economic powerhouse, the scale of these events has now grown enormously.

“In the past 10 years “Indian weddings across the board are undergoing a major change,” says Sima Taparia, a nationally renowned wedding consultant. Following her appearance in the hit Netflix documentary series “Indian Matchmaking,” it has become common for wealthy Indians to hold lavish weddings in exotic locations abroad, inviting Bollywood actors and celebrities. Musicians will also perform, she added.

“Indian weddings are about the power of connections, the power of relationships and the power of wealth,” said Aditya Motwane, the event planner who founded Motwane Entertainment & Weddings, and who worked on the wedding of actress Priyanka Chopra and singer Nick Jonas in 2018.

“Through celebrations like this, you can show everyone you know that you’ve succeeded in life,” he added.

View this interactive content on CNN.com

Indian weddings tend to last several days and have an average of 326 guests, compared with 115 in the United States, according to The Knot Worldwide.

For the wealthy, weddings are exponentially larger, with thousands of guests, overseas venues and expensive gifts. The event, held in Jamnagar city in March, was attended by around 1,200 celebrities, including Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates.

that A very wealthy person Millions of dollars were poured into the gala, where Ambani’s party featured a lavish light show using 5,500 drones to light up the sky above a glass palace built specially for the occasion, and guests danced to a performance by Rihanna.

The fabulously wealthy also make unusual requests: One couple asked Mr. Motwane to bring their elephant, an animal sacred to Hindus, to Monte Carlo to be blessed.

India is expected to become the world’s third-largest economy by 2027, and lavish weddings are expected to become even more common.

The number of Indians with a net worth of more than $30 million is set to grow by 50% in the five years to 2028, the biggest increase on record, according to a report by real estate consultancy Knight Frank. At the lower end of the economic ladder, 600 million Indians are expected to join the middle class by 2030. This segment accounts for more than 80% of the country’s purchasing power.

“As the middle class expands, they have more disposable income which inevitably gets spent on lavish parties and celebrations,” says Tina Talwani, co-founder of wedding-planning company Shadi Squad.

Rihanna, couture, emeralds

According to Jefferies, the average cost of a lavish wedding in India ranges from $200,000 to $400,000.

This kind The budget allows you to stay in 5-star hotels around the world and enjoy luxury They also provide catering, decorations and entertainment, sometimes featuring Bollywood actors and international singers.

But Jefferies’ cost estimates do not include the cost of jewellery or outfits. Bridal spending accounts for more than half of India’s total jewellery market, the bank noted.

The country is one of the largest markets for gold, but demand is Demand for diamonds and other precious gemstones is also on the rise: An emerald necklace worn by the groom’s mother, Nita Ambani, at a gala in March stunned the Internet for its size and sparkle.

A lavish Indian wedding is complete without lavish food, which may involve flying in Michelin-starred chefs and using the finest ingredients from around the world.

Many Indians don’t eat meat, and some avoid root vegetables, which often adds extra expenses to the budget. He recalls that when he was planning his wedding in Florence, many guests refused to eat garlic or onions. The Italian cooks “went crazy,” he says. A well-known Indian-Italian chef and his team Arrived by plane.

Various other businesses are also poised to grow as high-profile Ambani-style weddings have a “trickle-down effect” and “set new trends and standards and influence expectations of couples”, said Talwani, who worked on Indian cricketer Virat Kohli’s wedding in Tuscany.

Vanessa Almeida, who was in charge of packing and delivering about 8,000 gifts for Ambani’s guests at the jamboree in March, told CNN that similar party favors are gaining popularity across the country.

Almeida, the owner of a gift house in Goa, said customised leather products were the most popular among the many expensive gifts the family gave to their top guests, ranging from silver candlesticks and shawls to terrariums and birdhouses.

Demand for wedding videographers has also soared over the past decade, with companies charging as much as $10,000 for a video. Many couples are also shooting elaborately choreographed pre-wedding videos inspired by Bollywood musicals.

“Brides and grooms travel all over the world for pre-wedding photoshoots,” Taparia says.

Luxurious Wedding planners say the celebrations held overseas have caused some unrest in the local community.

In late May, the Ambanis hosted friends and family on a four-day Mediterranean cruise that featured Bollywood stars, Katy Perry, the Backstreet Boys, and an Italian tenor. Andrea Bocelli.

Not everyone was impressed: partiers blasted loud music until dawn, causing sleepless nights in some neighborhoods and angering residents of the port city of Genoa, according to media reports.

But despite the occasional inconvenience, these features generate revenue and jobs for the area. “One million euros came in within three days,” Motwane said.

The Indian government is now looking to capture a bigger slice of the revenue from luxury weddings, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi launching a “Marry In India” campaign to encourage wealthy families to marry in the country.

“People often spend a lot of money to get married abroad,” Modi said in March, but holding the wedding in India “allows families to enjoy three to four days of lavish celebrations and provides an opportunity for locals to earn a living.”