After festive bonanza, 4.8 mn weddings to cap India’s splurge season

After a stellar Onam-Dussehra-Diwali festive season during which businesses pocketed about $12 billion in just online sales, traders are gearing up for another $71.34 billion bonanza during the peak wedding season spread over November-December when 4.8 million couples are expected to tie the knot.

E-commerce sites posted sales of about ₹1 trillion (about $12 billion) during the month-long festive season that ended last week, a 20% jump from the previous year, The Economic Times reported on Monday, citing consultancy Datum Intelligence’s data.

Of the 4.8 million marriages expected to take place across the country, Delhi alone will host about 450,000 weddings, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said.

For comparison, India saw 3.5 million weddings spread across 11 auspicious dates in the peak wedding season last year, generating business worth ₹4.2 trillion ($50.5 billion), about 37% less than this year.

This year, there are 10 auspicious dates in November on 12, 13, 17, 18, 22, 23, 25, 26, 28, and 29, while December has eight: 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, and 16.

CAIT national president B.C. Bhartia outlined the projected wedding expenses: 1 million weddings at ₹300,000 each; another million at ₹600,000 each; 1 million at ₹1 million each; another 1 million at ₹1.5 million each; 700,000 at ₹2.5 million each; and 100,000 high-end weddings ranging from ₹5 million to over ₹10 million each.

Wedding costs are calculated for key dates, though many ceremonies occur on non-auspicious days. Pre-wedding events such as mehendi, sangeet, and engagements also incur substantial expenses.

Khandelwal said wedding expenses are split between goods and services. In goods, key spending includes clothing and apparel at 10%, jewelry at 15%, electronics at 5%, dry fruits, sweets, and snacks at 5%.

Under services, key expenditures include banquet halls and venues at 5%, event management at 3%, tent decoration and catering at 10% each, and floral decorations at 4%.

CAIT based its projections on discussions with major business groups across 75 cities, focusing on wedding-related commerce.

India’s largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, saw record retail sales of 202,402 units in October, in peak festive season, with a top executive Partho Banerjee expressing optimism for continued sales growth in November.

As “few lakhs” marriages are being planned across the country (in November), and “it will also give us good traction in terms of our retail sales,” Banerjee told the Press Trust of India.

In a striking display of opulence, the recent wedding in the Ambani family between Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant involved 11 lavish pre-wedding events and performances by global stars, culminating in total expenses, according to some media estimates, of about ₹5,000 crore ($600 million), exemplifying the extravagant heights of wedding spending among India’s elite.