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4 Ways the Wedding Industry is Rapidly Evolving
We love a Big Fat Indian Wedding, a long 5-7 days affair, immaculately planned and meticulously designed, one that our coming generations will speak about even in our 25th Wedding Anniversary wishes. Here’s a detailed guide for you if you are planning an Indian wedding for the first time.
And rightly so, the wedding industry benefits several other industries; hospitality, food, events, media, tourism and several others. Recently, we all have been obsessed with beautifully aesthetic weddings as several Bollywood A-listers tie the knot, giving us huge Wedding Goals.
Wedding Trends in India have, for the past decade, been seeing a gradual but drastic change, the reasons being the influence of Western Culture, the boom in the hospitality and tourism industry and the advent of social media, which has made aesthetically pleasing venues and decor even more important.
In the past 2 years, when the pandemic hit us and the lockdowns related to it brought our lives to what seemed like an endless haul, the wedding industry was adapting to the changes and restrictions in the backdrop of the deadliest pandemic.
Changing Wedding Trends
1. The Size of the Guest List
Weddings in India are over the top, extravagant and bigger than life; with a notoriously huge wedding guest list, it’s not surprising that weddings in India witness over 1000 guests. The mantra around the pandemic pretty soon became ‘social-distancing’.
Which forced people to cut short the huge wedding list and only invite a few close members. This new change surprisingly rubbed off on many millennials; now, small intimate weddings are more preferred than gathering thousands of people.
2. Western Trends in Indian Weddings
Ever since globalization and the influx of cinema in our lives, the fascination with western culture and lifestyle has grown on us; the US wedding market is worth $57.9 bn. At the same time, the Indian wedding market is $7 billion shy of $50 bn.
Some of the cultural habits Indian weddings have picked up are Gift Registry, Bridal Showers, Bachelor/Bachelorette Parties, Proposals, Cake Cutting, Bridesmaids, and much more. Compared to the simple weddings, which are now a thing of the past.
3. The Matchmaking
Arranged Marriage Vs. Love Marriage is the oldest debate in the wedding cloud. Some advocating the importance of knowing your partner before spending the rest of your life with them and on the other hand placing all your trust in your parents who will always choose the best for you.
Off-late preference to marry by your own choice has found popularity amongst millennials, even parents being on board with their kid’s big decision. Of course, many are still comfortable with traditional arranged marriages, and it works out for them, with digitally available apps, making the searching process easy.
4. Wedding Digitization
2 years is a long wait; God knows how many couples have compromised with their timelines because of Covid-19. But thanks to Video Conferencing platforms and digitalization that allowed many to carry their nuptials online, Zoom weddings came to the rescue.
