Budget planners take over to trim big, fat Indian weddings

Rajkumar Bansal, 61, who works as a collection officer with a bank in New Delhi, is planning for his daughter's marriage this year. He will take a loan to meet the wedding's inflated cost. And, he is not alone. As this year's wedding season kicks off in mid-October, many like Bansal would be facing a double whammy of an economic slowdown and high inflation.

Making good of the opportunity are a bunch of 'budget wedding planners', who have hit the circuit with the formula of Rs 10 lakh - the maximum amount that's spent on decoration, food and events. "The slowdown has made the consumer clinch his fist, he is anxiously hoping for times to improve," says Sumit Chaudhari, partner, Budget Weddings, a company that has emerged in the post-slowdown era and is growing. Chaudhari is helping Bansal, among others, stick to his budget while organising the wedding.

Even the higher-end weddings have been impacted. Shubham Weddings, which aims for a budget of more than Rs 25 lakh, going up to 'luxury', has seen a 25 per cent drop in its business. "A lot of our customers have money stuck in real estate or stock markets. All are going easy this year and the business is seeing a dip," points out Vijay Garg, owner of Shubham Weddings.

Gold, the single largest component of the Indian wedding market, has also been hit - more due to volatility in its price. Ahead of the peak season, shops in one of the country's oldest gold markets, Old Delhi's Dariba Kalan, wears a deserted look - something unheard of for this time of the year. "Our sales have dropped 50 per cent. Usually, we start getting orders after Raksha Bandhan. But there is almost no sale, this year," says Nirmal Kumar Jain, president of Dariba Jewellers Association, which has more than 300 shops as members. According to Jain, more than high price, the recent fluctuation in the yellow metal's price has been bothering consumers.

Meghali Gupta, who runs a 200-year-old gold shop at Chandni Chowk, compares the scenario with the previous year. Gold price was at almost the same level last year, too. But sales were high. This time, sales have fallen significantly. Others are hopeful that demand will rise suitably as the season picks up.

No Indian wedding is complete without buying, selling and gifting gold jewellery. Around 50 per cent of the country's gold demand can be attributed to weddings. So, the precious metal's transactions at weddings annually are pegged at 400 tonnes, or worth around $25 billion, according to Shreem Jeweler Managing Director Ashutosh Sharma. These estimates, however, might not be accurate as weddings are part of an unorganised market.

Even as the business of weddings is focused on cutting the flab, food is one aspect that's still holding on. Cost cuts are unlikely in the food segment. Pranab Subodh Gupta, who runs a catering business and deals with both high-and middle-class customers, says it's business as usual for him. "Growth in the economy may have been slow. But it's not so in my business. People generally avoid cutting on food."

Decoration, though, is an area that has been dented. Compared with last year, bookings are down 30-40 per cent, according to Sandeep Chauhan, who owns the city's SR Entertainment. SR offers wedding decor within a price range of Rs 4 lakh to Rs 40 lakh. "Of course, there are cost cuts in decorations."

The great Indian weddings, surely, are on a low!

MUTED COLOURS
|Demand for gold jewellery has come down by up to 50%
|Traditionally, over 400 tonnes of gold are exchanged each year during the wedding season
|The decoration business has seen a drop - of about 30%