The mother of all wedding seasons is upon us. If you believe pundits (and we are talking priests and financial experts together), there are 30% more auspicious moments in the 2024-25 wedding season than ever. A report estimates that Delhi traders expect the wedding business to be worth R6,00,000 crore this season. That means households would spend that amount. That is a colossal sum.
The Reserve Bank of India released a report on the finances of municipal corporations in India last week. The data on cumulative annual revenue receipts for the latest year suggest that this amount is three and a half times more than the money major municipalities like those in Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Bengaluru, and others earn. According to another RBI statistical set, the money is about 5% of the total household bank deposits.
Companies anticipate the significant expenditure households make for a once-in-a-lifetime event like marriage. The excitement was evident in a conference call India Hotels, the Tata company that owns and manages The Taj Group of Hotels and other brands, held recently. The word ‘wedding’ was mentioned several times in the conversation. The company looks to benefit from its presence at 125 locations in India and abroad. The word used was to create ‘Instagram-able’ moments for customers. That is just one example. There are so many elements in the wedding industry.
An interesting statistic shows that about 35 lakh weddings are held every year. They are split into five categories based on expenditure, starting from Rs 3,00,000 to over R1 crore. The maximum weddings are in the second category of Rs 10,00,000 expenditure. However, there are about 50,000 weddings yearly for which over Rs 1crore is spent. The wedding industry is growing at 25% every year. That is excellent news for the economy overall.