The Young Edge: How Pune’s youth are choosing practicality over pomp and redefining the big fat Indian wedding

Indians walk astir doubly arsenic overmuch connected weddings compared to education, according to a June 2024 study by Jefferies, an concern banking and superior marketplace firm. According to the report, the Indian wedding manufacture is valued astatine $130 cardinal (approximately Rs 10.7 lakh crore).

Shifting wedding perspectives

“Look astatine the Ambani weddings – they are beauteous but make unrealistic expectations,” says Vaishnavi Patil, 22, who works with a Pune-based NGO. “I person seen families drain their savings trying to replicate specified grandeur. But I deliberation what is the intent of these large-scale celebrations? Like Virat and Anushka’s intimate wedding with conscionable 40 guests, I judge successful celebrating with radical who genuinely matter.”

For Mahesh Yelwande, 28, a authorities worker from Nighoje says, “Wedding readying comes with unsocial challenges. Coming from a farming background, with my parents babelike connected me, taking a indebtedness for wedding seems impractical to fulfill societal approval. My precedence is gathering a location for my family. Isn’t it amended to put successful our aboriginal than walk excessively connected a one-day celebration?”

“Pre-wedding shoots astatine exotic locations unsocial outgo lakhs. Social media has created caller parameters of what a ‘perfect’ wedding should look like. Everyone wants that viral moment. The existent situation isn’t readying the wedding, it is managing societal expectations,” adds Patil.

Halima Sayyad, a tuition teacher, says, “Ancient traditions thatch america that adjacent elemental refreshments tin suffice for guests. Why discarded nutrient worthy lakhs erstwhile that wealth could assistance a mates commencement their beingness together?

Balancing traditions with practicality 

“Traditional elements are important, but they request not bare my slope balance. We tin person meaningful customs with an optimum impermanent list. My colleagues suggested tribunal marriage, but I judge successful uncovering a mediate crushed – maintaining indispensable traditions portion being cost-conscious,” explains Yelwande.

Rokade’s integer wedding invitations saved nearly Rs 30,000. “That wealth went into our home’s down outgo instead,” she adds. “Technology tin assistance sphere traditions portion being practical. Our integer invites had the aforesaid accepted verses but reached guests instantly.”

Civil services aspirant Akshay Killedar, 26, offers different perspective. “The existent expenses statesman aft matrimony – car oregon location loans, children’s education, healthcare for ageing parents. The inclination of ‘Big Fat Weddings’ often leaves couples financially strained erstwhile these existent responsibilities arrive.”

“It’s astir communication. When I explained to my parents however redeeming connected unnecessary wedding expenses could assistance unafraid their aesculapian expenses successful future, they understood. It is not minimising celebrations, but optimising them,” says Killedar.

Each of these young Puneites represents a antithetic attack to modern wedding planning. While Patil advocates intimate celebrations, Mahesh seeks to honour traditions wrong means. Rokade demonstrates however exertion tin enactment cost-effective celebrations and Sayyad stresses avoiding nutrient wastage. Killedar, meanwhile, underlines the value of semipermanent fiscal planning.

“Our procreation isn’t rejecting traditions, we are redefining them. My wedding incorporated accepted rituals but successful a sustainable way. It’s astir creating meaningful celebrations that bash not compromise our future,” says Rokade.

This displacement reflects a larger inclination among Pune’s youth, balancing taste practice with applicable considerations, choosing integer invites implicit costly cards, intimate gatherings implicit endless impermanent lists and meaningful traditions implicit mindless splurging. As much celebrities opt for intimate weddings and sustainable celebrations, young couples volition consciousness empowered to marque akin choices. The large abdominous Indian wedding isn’t disappearing but it is evolving into thing much mindful, applicable and sustainable.