The Hindu Business Line : Taking the Indian wedding global

The organised Indian wedding industry, riding on a Rs 1 lakh crore annual money spend, and growing phenomenally at a 25 per cent rate annually, is now all set to go global.

And in its wake, is creating innovative entrepreneurship in wedding related highly customised businesses such as designer clothing and jewellery, trousseau packaging, wedding photography, home grown chocolate-based “Turkihsh Baclavas and travel-tourism, including star cruises for honeymooners.

“Celebrating Vivaha”, a multifaceted wedding expo tailored to match the needs of fast changing wedding styles of upwardly mobile Indians, has hit big time, and is all set to reach out to the Indian diaspora in the UK, Australia, New Jersey in US, Vancouver in Canada, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Tarun Sarda, CEO of Celebrating Vivaha, told Business Line the wedding expos, held bi-annually in cities such as Delhi and Mumbai, now clock a business of Rs 100 crore annually. In a city like Kolkata, which has its own set of mill ionaires, such expos are fast evolving into a Rs 50-crore business.

In city for the 4-day “Celebrating Vivaha 2007” Exhibition, Sarda said the London foray at Barbican Exhibition Centre has been planned for May 2008, while the In-Touch with Fashion Grand Indian exhibition will be held in Dubai in October this year. A series of such wedding expos have been planned in cities like Ludhiana, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad this year.

He intends to first tap the UK market for Indian weddings, before venturing into Vancouver in Canada, sometime in 2009. According to Sarda, who started his venture in 2003, Vivaha Exhibitions today were no longer a straightforward jewellery and cloths show. “It is now a one-stop affair, where in addition to jewellery and clothing, one is also exposed to wedding planners, mehendi artists, trousseau packaging, chocolate makers, paintings, home furnishings, gifting items, honeymoon destinations, photography etc.”

Citing cocktails-dinner, mehendi, engagement and wedding proper as the main events over the four days, Sarda says more Indian weddings are now held in foreign locales (Malaysia is a popular destination), and for a couple with an inv itee list of some 350 people, the bill may come to Rs 2 crore.