How Convenience And Cost Is Replacing Rituals In Indian Weddings

Neelima Mishra Jul 21, 2022

Contrary to simple traditional weddings, lavish weddings are receiving far too much attention today. A person's wedding day still ranks as the most important day of their lives and according to the religion or culture one follows, it is important to choose an auspicious year, day, or month for the wedding to take place.

While most weddings are held on certain days only, the trend is gradually changing. Now convenience and cost are taking over rituals. A wedding held on an auspicious date will cost you almost two times because there is a huge demand for venues, decor, etc. The same wedding can be executed at half the cost if the approach becomes-'everyday is an auspicious day.

Keeping this changing attitude in mind, we spoke to some leading voices from the wedding industry about their take on this ritual of 'Auspicious Wedding Date for Marriage' and whether or not it truly matters when or on what grounds today’s generations’ weddings take place. Here is what they had to say:

Vikaas Gutgutia, MD & Founder of Ferns N' Petals (FNP)

Wedding in India is a seasonal business. You work four to five months in a year and the next seven months become increasingly difficult to survive; primarily because of the unavailability of 'auspicious' dates. Whatever you earn in these five months, you eventually end up exhausting. A lot of people are unemployed during these lean months in the wedding industry. My point here is the day I'm born, there's no 'muhrat'. The day I die there will be no muhrat. So what is the significance of muhrat in a wedding? Every day is a good day. If you choose to tie the knot on one such day, which might not be an 'auspicious' day as per the calendar, your cost of hosting a wedding is slashed by half. You will manage to get the hotel booking at a cheaper rate, the venue cost will be equally cheap, the caterer will give you a cheap deal and the decor will be set up at a cheaper price. Everything will be less expensive. I feel convenience will gradually take over tradition.

Chetan Vohra, Co-founder WeddingLine

For a wedding planning company whenever there is a wedding, it is an auspicious day. But having said that - many cultures do not follow a date chart. They look at other parameters like the convenience and make an informed decision on the date the celebration should be held on.

It is all about a matter of convenience for the upcoming generation and not just an auspicious day-driven event. Whenever they will get the time, they will tie the knot without waiting for an auspicious day.

Rajesh Verma, CRI Events PVT LTD, Founder Director

Modern-day couples have started looking at any day in the year for their weddings and not restricting to saaya dates, they are the new age couples with less regard to custom dates and believe that getting married on auspicious dates is not the recipe for living happily ever after. That said, some families are still following the saaya dates and venues and the supply chain does become an issue on those dates.