Kitschy, elaborate décor; models dressed in opulent clothes; jewellery that could give the Crown Jewels a complex, stalls by fashion designers, stylists, caterers, make-up artists, florists, invitation and accessory vendors, even mehendiwallahs–if it weren’t for the lack of a bride and groom, you’d think you were at a real Indian wedding. Sophisticated, detailed bridal exhibitions and expos have become as frequent and elaborate as weddings in India these days. With reason. India’s wedding industry is estimated at Rs 100,000 crore, and is said to be growing at 25 per cent per annum. No wonder everyone wants a slice of the pie.
The target audience is happy too; because these shows act as one-stop shops, giving potential brides and grooms access to designers, jewellers and all other wedding-related vendors at one go.
Consider the forthcoming India Bridal Fashion Week, which has the Bridal Luxury Couture Exposition running on the sidelines. After operating for five years in Mumbai, it is being held in Delhi between July 23 and 28, and will feature fashion designers such as Rohit Bal, J J Valaya, Tarun Tahiliani, Leena-Ashima and Raghavendra Rathore. A decade back, a woman would have killed to see bridal ensembles from the country’s top designers at one place; today—owing to the plethora of wedding shows being organised across the country–nothing could be easier.
So what really makes the wedding exhibition business big? Vijay Singh, managing director of Fashion One International (which organises India Bridal Fashion Week) says: “Weddings have become a lifestyle statement and consequently the trend of shopping at such exhibitions is growing. Also, weddings are recession-proof, especially within the luxury segment that we cater to, so business only grows.”
Divya Gurwara, who organised India’s best large-scale wedding exhibition, Bridal Asia, in 1999, says “Footfalls are not just growing, but improving too. The conversion rate is increasing every year. About 90 per cent of visitors end up buying at our expo.” Gurwara has maintained the exclusivity of Bridal Asia by holding only one expo a year in Delhi during the auspicious Navratra period.
Vintage Publications started its Celebrating Vivaha 11 years ago while Excelsior Public Relations’ Wedding Asia is in its ninth year. The newest player in the category is the Vogue Wedding Show, a by-invitation, three-day expo that was held this April at Taj Palace in New Delhi.
All the players say north India is the most popular location for wedding expos, given that it hosts the most number of big fat (Punjabi) weddings. Down south, it’s only now that the trend of wedding expos is catching on, and here there, it’s mostly jewellery that sells. “The spending pattern is different across the country. For instance in the southern cities, its jewellery mostly that people come to buy at a wedding expo whereas in North India, people are impulsive buyers and will buy anything from a honeymoon package to a bridal lehenga,” explains Maninder Sethi, director, Wedding Asia.
The costs involved are not low. Organising a three-day wedding exhibition at a five-star venue costs the organisers Rs 1 crore-Rs 1.5 crore, including advertising costs. It takes two to three years for a fair to break-even and it’s only in the third year that profits start trickling in. But then, the profit margin is a good 20 to 40 percent, claim the organisers. As for the exhibitors, they typically pay between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 3 lakh for a stall at a wedding exhibition but the returns are uncertain. Says Kapil Khurana, owner and creative head of Entertainment Design Company, which participated in the Vogue Wedding Show and Tarun Tahiliani’s Exposition: “It’s more of a brand-building exercise than a selling platform. We have our physical presence (the stores) for sales. These exhibitions help us in brand resonation.”
Tahiliani, who has been hosting bridal couture expos for five years now, explains why organising such shows make sense even though bridal fashion is showcased at fashion weeks round the year. “Indian couture has a lot of detailing. When a model sashays down the ramp, our patrons often miss out on those details. My couture exposition is about letting them admire and enjoy the couture up, close. We put up samples so that everyone can pick and choose,” the designer says on the sidelines of the three-day Tarun Tahiliani Bridal Couture Exposition 2013 that ended on Friday at Delhi’s DLF Emporio Mall. Forevermark and Azva by World Gold Council collaborated with the designer to showcase their collections at the exposition.
With these exhibitions getting popular, the event management companies are on an expansion spree. Celebrating Vivaha now organizes shows in Ludhiana, Raipur, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Indore. Next year, it plans to take the wedding wagon to New Jersey, in the US. Wedding Asia, which is held in New Delhi, Chandigarh, Ludhiana and Hyderabad, is expanding to Chennai, Bombay, Pune and even Jammu next year. Clearly, it’s a happily ever-after story for wedding expo organisers.
(With inputs from Nidhi Raj Singh)
- Sunday Standard