Growing up in India, Shubhangi Seth always envisioned her dream wedding on the enchanting shores of Italy’s Lake Como, surrounded by beautiful high mountains and crystal-clear blue waters.
It’s where George and celebrities like Amal Clooney, John Legend, and Chrissy Teigen exchanged vows.
But as the years have passed, the Mumbai resident has diminished her fantasies about Lake Como and prioritized tradition and culture instead.
“I just want a very traditional, rooted wedding,” the 29-year-old told CNN. “We want to keep it in India.”
These words may be music to Indian leader Narendra Modi’s renewed call for people to hold weddings for their teams and avoid weddings abroad to protect culture and the economy.
“The number of weddings abroad is rapidly increasing,” Prime Minister Modi said at a recent gathering. “However, consider the fact that this involves significant foreign currency expenditure.”
“When it comes to weddings, I don’t think there is a more beautiful and sacred place than our own in India.”
Prime Minister Modi wants to preserve foreign exchange reserves to protect the rupee and act as a buffer from further economic shocks.
Mr. Modi’s appeal is not new, but it has taken on increased priority in the face of economic tensions caused by the Iran war.
India imports about 90% of its oil and gas needs, much of it from the Middle East. Tensions over the Strait of Hormuz, a key energy chokepoint, have heightened concerns about supply disruptions and rising import costs, adding to pressure on an already weak rupee.
Prime Minister Modi is now asking India’s 1.4 billion people to conserve fuel, embrace remote work and opt for domestic holidays.
He also asked people in India, one of the world’s biggest gold consumers, to limit their gold purchases for a year. The country imports much of its precious metals, which are of great importance to the South Asian nation and are seen as bringing good fortune and being able to build wealth for generations.
All this is happening at a time when the rupee has depreciated by more than 5% since the start of the war, making it the worst-performing currency among major Asian currencies.
Have a spectacular wedding abroad or at home
The Indian wedding industry has changed dramatically over the past decade, driven by the extravagance of Bollywood, celebrity culture and social media spectacle.
Today, weddings are often large, multi-day events that drive an industry worth around $130 billion, according to a report by U.S. investment bank Jefferies. This makes it the second-largest consumption sector in India after food and groceries, and almost twice the size of the US wedding market, the report said.
Blending sacred rituals and cultural heritage with theatrical pomp, Indian weddings can serve as a vibrant showcase of the country’s soft power.
Some have generated global headlines.
The 2024 wedding of Anant Ambani, the son of India’s richest man, was a grand affair that spanned the western cities of Jamnagar and Mumbai. The star-studded guest list included performances from Kim and Khloe Kardashian, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Modi himself, and Rihanna.
A few years earlier, Priyanka Chopra had a lavish wedding to Nick Jonas at the massive Umaid Bhawan palace in northwest Jodhpur.
According to industry insiders, the number of glittering wedding gifts is increasing in Japan.
Luxury wedding planner Vikramjeet Sharma told CNN that many of his clients want to enjoy a real wedding at home.
According to the Jefferies report, 8 million to 10 million weddings take place in India every year. Sharma, who has been in the industry for nearly 20 years, said his team planned about 28 weddings last year. Only three of these were held overseas.
“The number of weddings taking place in India, the size of weddings taking place in India, the average cost per wedding taking place in India have all gone up by a significant amount,” Sharma told CNN.
Monir Shah, another planner, told CNN that “we’re seeing a noticeable change” in couples choosing to get married in India.
Mr. Modi, a right-wing populist, has built a political brand around promises of economic development, self-reliance and national pride, combining Hindu nationalist rhetoric with an ambitious push for modernization.
In 2014, his flagship ‘Make in India’ initiative aimed to reduce dependence on imports and strengthen domestic manufacturing. About a decade later, he repackaged the same message for the wedding industry with a new slogan: “Indian Weddings”.
Now, seemingly under pressure from the economic fallout from the war with Iran, Prime Minister Modi frames common consumer choices like buying less gasoline or choosing to work from home as patriotic actions.
This has prompted criticism from opposition parties, which argue that calls for sacrifices will do little to address India’s deep economic vulnerabilities.
“Modi asked people to make sacrifices: don’t buy gold, don’t go abroad, use less petrol, less fertilizer and cooking oil, ride the metro, work from home. These are not sermons, they are evidence of failure,” he said on social media.
But for bride-to-be Seth, the decision to marry in her homeland is not political.
She and her fiancé have spent months planning a wedding that blends their Hindu traditions with his Sikh heritage, but they don’t want to incur the high costs of a lavish overseas wedding.
Later this year, the couple is set to exchange vows in the picturesque city of Jaipur, also known as the “Pink City,” which is believed to be home to several historic buildings that mirror the pastel aesthetic of Wes Anderson films.
Jaipur is also one of India’s top wedding destinations, with ornate palaces and historic forts providing the backdrop for multi-day traditional and modern festivities.
“India has a lot of really comfortable spaces, which you can’t get overseas,” Seth said.
