One of the most anticipated events this summer is the wedding of Anant Ambani — the son of Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, who will be tying the knot with his long-time girlfriend Radhika Merchant in July.
Sujit Jaiswal | Afp | Getty Images
Weddings are a huge business in India.
One of the most anticipated weddings this summer will be when Anant Ambani — the son of Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani — ties the knot with his long-time girlfriend Radhika Merchant in July.
Ahead of their big day, Ambani and Merchant threw a lavish three-day pre-nuptial bash in March. From Hollywood to Bollywood, Silicon Valley and beyond — the party hosted some of the world’s biggest tycoons and celebrities.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, singer Rihanna and daughter of former U.S. president, Ivanka Trump were all in attendance.
“The three biggest moments, culturally, for India are Bollywood, cricket and weddings,” Mehak Sagar, co-founder of WedMeGood, told CNBC Make It.
The Indian wedding industry is estimated to have brought in about 4.74 trillion rupees (about $56 billion) during the 2023 wedding season, thus making it a “trillion-dollar enterprise,” according to the 2024 Wedding Industry Report by WedMeGood, a wedding planner platform.
“Given that it is the fourth largest industry in India — the Indian wedding industry touches maybe 16 to 20 [other] industries,” Sagar said. It has a direct economic impact on the jewelry and hospitality industries, she added.
Lavish Indian weddings are no stranger to Tina Tharwani. The 36-year-old is the co-founder and head of business development and client servicing for the Mumbai-based wedding-planning company, Shaadi Squad.
Famous for being the brains behind American singer Nick Jonas’ engagement with Indian actress Priyanka Chopra, as well as Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma and professional cricketer Virat Kohli’s wedding, Shaadi Squad’s clientele is among India’s super-rich and super-famous.
The Shaadi Squad team planned Indian actress Anushka Sharma and Indian cricketer Virat Kohli’s wedding.
Courtesy of Shaadi Squad
While budgets vary for most weddings, some of Tina’s clientele have no budget – “even the stars and the moon [are] sometimes not enough for the couple,” Tharwani told CNBC Make It.
From her years of experience, Tharwani offered three “often-overlooked” financial rules that can be applied to planning your wedding:
Agree on a budget
The first step is to discuss and agree on a budget with key stakeholders such as family and future in-laws, according to Tharwani.
“When [couples] don’t have a number in mind, it becomes difficult to make decisions,”: she said. This could lead people to being blind-sided by the bill.
Shaadi Squad co-founders Tina Tharwani and Saurabh Malhotra helped plan Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra’s engagement.
Courtesy or Shaadi Squad
If couples wait to come up with a budget, “by the time we kind of get to that understanding — it [can be a] little late in the game to reverse certain decisions,” which could lead to “getting stuck in a situation,” she said.
After coming up with that number, you can work backwards to find out how much to spend on supplies, vendors and other expenses. Tharwani suggests using social media to do research on pricing of products and services.
Keep taxes in mind
Another overlooked financial rule is taxes.
“We need to keep in mind that there’s a whole tax component that gets kicked in, which at the end of it, becomes quite a sizable amount,” Tharwani said.
When coming up with a number at the beginning of the wedding planning process, it’s important to add taxes into the total budget in order to create a more accurate gauge on expenses.
Have a solid guest count
“The guest count is of paramount importance,” said Tharwani. This is especially true when it comes to destination weddings, she said.
While the guest count can vary by 5% to 10% in the beginning, “being too off in counts leads to almost a domino effect when it comes to implications on the cost front,” she said.
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