Lavish weddings are not enough. Indians want bespoke celebrations

livemint.com:

dholwallas, who are being flown in from Delhi. “Tani (Tanishqa) was feeling FOMO," laughs Chheda, when asked the reason behind a non-traditional, joint barat. “She doesn’t want to wait around and miss the fun of making a grand entry." For the reception, they’ve decided to turn a ballroom into a forest.

“There will be 3D mountains, trees, floral animals, mermaids and butterflies (women dressed with fins and wings, serving food and beverages)," says Navani, who’s currently building a pet products company. “Each day will have theme-based food, music, dress codes... We don’t want our wedding to be just another destination wedding, where people come, eat, stay and leave.

We want to tell them who we two are, what our story is, and get to know each other." Indian weddings have always been lavish social events, even for those with modest means. An average Indian spends double of what they do on education on weddings, says a recent report by Jefferies, a US-headquartered investment bank and financial services company. This is about ₹12 lakh on marriage-related ceremonies.

Even two decades ago, families were spending six times their annual income on a wedding, concluded a 2004 study, Wedding Celebrations As Conspicuous Consumption: Signaling Social Status In Rural India, published in the Journal Of Human Resources. When it comes to the rich, spending has been consistently limitless. After all, weddings are also a way to display social capital, status and wealth.

A display of extravagance is no longer enough, though. Many couples, much like Navani and Chheda, are increasingly looking for one theme when planning their wedding: everything bespoke. They seek to add a “wow" factor to their celebrations that also reflects their selves.