{"id":401229,"date":"2025-11-24T11:45:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T11:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/401229\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T11:45:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T11:45:20","slug":"mantena-wedding-is-a-turning-point-for-big-fat-indian-shaadi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/401229\/","title":{"rendered":"Mantena wedding is a turning point for big fat Indian shaadi"},"content":{"rendered":"

When British-Indian steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal<\/a> hosted his daughter\u2019s famously opulent wedding across French landmarks such as the Palace of Versailles nearly two decades ago, it symbolised the ultimate aspiration of wealthy Indian families. Today, however, the trend seems to be reversing. <\/p>\n

Foreigners are flying into India to wed. The recent high-profile Mantena wedding<\/a> in Udaipur, attended by global celebrities including Donald Trump Jr., Jennifer Lopez and Justin Bieber, highlights how India is transforming into an ideal destination for the rich to wed.<\/p>\n

Also Read: Meet Raj Mantena, a pharma titan hosting a star-studded Udaipur wedding for his daughter<\/a>
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The shift reflects rising national confidence, improved hospitality infrastructure and a new cultural ambition marked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s call for a \u201cWed in India\u201d movement in 2023. Once, affluent Indians went to Europe and the Middle East to wed and now foreigner couples are coming to Rajasthan\u2019s forts, Goa\u2019s beaches and Kerala\u2019s backwaters, marking a decisive expansion of the \u201cWed in India\u201d theme.How the \u201cWed in India\u201d theme is expanding
PM Modi\u2019s appeal in 2023 for a \u201cWed in India\u201d movement underscored a turning point in India\u2019s wedding economy. He urged affluent business families to choose domestic destinations over international ones, arguing that the country lost enormous foreign exchange each year to overseas weddings. ET had reported that industry bodies estimated annual outflows of up to Rs 1 lakh crore as wealthy families opted for European chateaus, Gulf resorts or Southeast Asian islands for multi-day celebrations. With the absence of an official survey on foreign destination weddings by Indians, estimates at that time suggested that around 5,000 such weddings occurred annually, with expenditures ranging from Rs 75 thousand crore to Rs 1 lakh crore.
\"ETLive Events
PM Modi’s call for course correction coincided with a domestic realisation that India\u2019s own infrastructure had grown robust enough to support weddings of the same grandeur once associated with foreign locales.

Also Read: <\/strong>Shaadi season arrives in full swing, fuels big fat business for India Inc<\/a>
Why Indian elites are choosing home ground
Luxury hotels, palace resorts and event planners have expanded capacity dramatically over the past five or six years. ET has reported that chains like Hilton<\/a> have deployed specialised wedding teams and that Radisson has been building dedicated wedding concepts as one-stop solutions for large and intricate events. This professionalisation of the wedding ecosystem has made it easier for families to host multi-day celebrations for hundreds of guests entirely within India, without compromising on aesthetics or logistics.<\/p>\n

The revival of elaborate multi-event weddings, often with 250 or more guests, has also been documented by planners and hotel executives. They attribute this to India\u2019s improved connectivity, a more sophisticated hospitality sector and a renewed cultural preference for celebrating personal milestones within the country. Venues in Rajasthan, Goa, Uttarakhand and Kerala have benefited the most, transforming into wedding hubs with the ambience and capabilities once associated with international destinations.<\/p>\n

Foreigners are now part of the story
What marks the newest phase of the \u201cWed in India\u201d movement is the participation of foreigners, not just as tourists or invitees but increasingly as couples who view India as an evocative setting for their own weddings. There have been several such events in recent years, including foreign couples choosing Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Goa for traditional Indian-style ceremonies. These weddings are often motivated by the allure of Indian rituals, the romantic appeal of heritage architecture and the perception of India as an immersive cultural venue.<\/p>\n

Platforms connecting foreign tourists with Indian wedding experiences further illustrate this trend. There are portals where international visitors sign up to attend Indian weddings to experience their colour, food and cultural depth. While this represents a niche segment, it shows that Indian wedding culture<\/a> itself has become a global attraction.<\/p>\n

As foreign couples exchange vows under Rajasthani arches or Kerala sunsets, and as Indian families choose domestic palaces and resorts for their celebrations, the \u201cWed in India\u201d movement is expanding from a patriotic call to an organic business trend. What began as an effort to keep Indian wealth at home is evolving into one of the country\u2019s most vibrant cultural exports, the Indian wedding experience itself.<\/p>\n

What lies ahead
The government now views weddings as a vital component of tourism strategy. Officials have argued that India should position itself as a global wedding destination the way it has positioned itself for spiritual tourism or MICE events. ET has reported discussions within the Tourism Ministry on building wedding-linked infrastructure and tapping into high-value wedding tourism markets.<\/p>\n

States like Kerala have been identified as emerging hotspots. Their appeal lies in natural settings, luxury resorts and the ability to offer a quieter, more intimate alternative to Rajasthan\u2019s forts and Goa\u2019s beaches. This diversification aligns with national efforts to distribute tourism benefits beyond traditional hubs.<\/p>\n

However, the rapid expansion of the wedding industry also brings challenges. Event planners have told TOI that foreign weddings require navigation of cultural expectations, language barriers and logistical complexities such as visas and permissions. Expanding tourism demand sometimes strains local infrastructure, especially during peak winter wedding seasons. Ensuring consistent service quality, managing crowding and promoting sustainable practices are key concerns for the industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When British-Indian steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal hosted his daughter\u2019s famously opulent wedding across French landmarks such as the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":401230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[185,189967,171,115316,189973,189433,189968,189969,189970,189971,63211,189185,67,132,68,189966,189972],"class_list":{"0":"post-401229","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-destination-weddings-in-india","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-hilton","12":"tag-indian-wedding-culture","13":"tag-lakshmi-mittal","14":"tag-luxury-wedding-venues","15":"tag-mantena-wedding","16":"tag-raj-mantena","17":"tag-raj-mantena-daughter-wedding","18":"tag-titan","19":"tag-udaipur-wedding","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-wed-in-india-movement","24":"tag-wedding-tourism-in-india"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}