Middle Class Indian Wedding Cost

Weddings in India have transformed from social gatherings into mega-events. Parents save diligently to make their child's wedding a dream reality.

Are you planning a wedding in India? Are you all set with grand ideas and your favorite bridal magazines, but still confused about the budget? Do you have very little knowledge about how much a middle-class wedding in India costs? Do you need tips to save on your marriage? Do you want to cut corners without compromising on your grand ideas?

You have come to the right place. mymoneykarma tells you about seven necessary expenses that will crop up in your wedding and how to reduce those expenses. Let's get started.

Venue

These days, wedding venues are just like a great flat with a great location: hard to find and insanely expensive.  Fancy hotel ballrooms, banquet halls, upscale farmhouses, and huge function halls are the popular choices, and they cost a bomb. But venues need not cost an arm and a leg if you plan carefully.

Choose a place in the outskirts instead of an upscale hotel within the city to save costs. Search for a venue that doesn't require you to use their in-house vendors for decoration and catering services mandatorily. Go for open ground venues that will give you the liberty to work with your preferred vendors.

Many wedding planners also suggest moving the wedding to an offseason period when hotels and banquet halls offer huge discounts. The same applies for destination weddings. Moving your marriage to a weekday instead of a weekend can also help you get a good deal.

Catering

Indian weddings revolve around food. The kind of food available at your wedding might determine your relationship with your guests. These days, having multiple cuisine options, numerous items on the menu and exotic preparations are considered a must. Unfortunately, they also cost a lot. But saving on the catering does not take a lot of time or effort. Serving too many items can increase the cost per plate. Having international cuisine can increase food cost. Hence, going for Indian cuisine can lower your catering costs.  Hiring cooks and providing them with raw materials is cheaper than hiring professional caterers. Boutique hotels and five-star resorts charge more for catering than standard hotels, so keep that in mind while choosing a venue.

Decorations

It matters how your wedding venue looks like. First impressions are essential, a well-decorated 'Shaadi Ka Ghar' makes a great impression on guests and family alike. Choosing exotic flowers for decorations or out-of-the-box wedding decor can turn your budget upside down.

Instead, you could go for DIY decorations, replace real flowers with colorful artificial ones and recycle objects to add a quirky touch to your wedding. You can also play around with inexpensive fairy lights for a grand look if you don't prefer minimalistic designs for your dream wedding.

Wedding Attire

A wedding is an occasion for the bride and the groom to shine. They must look their best. Hence wedding attire has become a full-scale industry. Designer sarees or lehengas, couture suits and expensive trinkets look good but can be a financial nightmare. Instead, opt for getting your wedding outfit stitched by your tailor using the designs and fabrics you like for less than half the price. Wedding attires are often impractical and are rarely worn afterward. Choose lighter attires that you can reuse in the future. Renting your wedding attire is also a pocket-friendly option worth exploring. There are many portals available that allow you to rent your wedding attire out after the event to even out the initial expenses.

Jewelry

Wedding jewelry is probably one of the most significant components of a middle-class Indian wedding budget. With the prices of gold, silver and diamonds shooting up, buying jewelry for your wedding can be a costly affair. A sensible solution to it is opting for costume jewelry. Costume jewelry looks great on a bride but is available at a fraction of the cost of gold jewelry. Renting jewelry is a cost-saving upcoming trend in the Indian middle-class. These options also allow you more choices and the flexibility of coordinating your jewelry with your dress. You can also go for multiple sets if you want to mix and match.

Gifts for Family and Groom

Another significant chunk of your wedding budget is dedicated to buying gifts for the other side. While it was socially apt to be gifting expensive things, these days, cost-cutting is the new mantra. Come up with personalized hampers for family members and cute handy knick-knacks for the groom and his family. Gift something useful and healthy like hampers of green tea that people can appreciate while not disbalance your budget.

Wedding Cards

Traditional wedding cards are expensive, predictive and end up in most people's trashes. But you are set back by thousands because of them. You can instead come up with new ideas for creating personalized e-invites like a wedding website or a video that your guests can access. This can help save the costs of printing and dispatching the wedding cards.  Gifting handmade personalised cards are a cheaper way and add a more personal touch than a generic wedding card.

Wedding Photography

Your wedding is very important to you, and you would want the memories to be captured in photos forever. However, traditional wedding photographers charge a lot to shoot your photos and videos. You can instead hire that amatuer photographer friend or cousin to do it for you. There are many freelancers in the market as well who can give you lower than average rates.

To Sum up

Following the above tips can make sure that you fulfill your dream of a grand Indian wedding without burning a hole in your pockets. Instead of spending a fortune on the wedding budget, you could invest the money in different areas to secure your future after marriage.

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Good luck!