The pomp and splendor displayed last month in London convinced millions around the world to not only watch the wedding ceremony of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, but also to dub the extravaganza the "Wedding of the Century". But in India, where the typical upper-class wedding is expected to be an ostentatious spectacle, many well-heeled prospective brides and grooms might be tempted to point out that the century has only just begun.
"In India, they are like royal weddings everyday, particularly at the high end," says Anita Patel, Managing Director of Tania-Tapel Events, a Mumbai-based international event-management company specializing in weddings. For the wealthiest Indian couples, the cache of the royal seal may be out of reach, but very little else is. "In India it's more about glamour and glitz, there's more one-upmanship," says Patel. "People want something bigger and better than the last wedding they went to. They want something different every time."(See pictures of Queen Elizabeth's most stunning tiaras.)
And a booming Indian economy has left more Indian families flush with the cash required to
mimic monarchic nuptials. The Indian wedding industry is awash with examples of trend-setting matrimonial excess: elephants flown from India to Monte Carlo to carry the groom on his grand entrance; bringing Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet to perform at a reception; and laying on a fleet of private jets with hourly departures, so that guests could come and go as they pleased. "The budgets are astronomical," says Anaita Shroff Adajania, fashion director at Vogue India. "I'm sure there's [been] a wedding in India on the scale of the Royal wedding, but not [with] the impact."
The spiraling matrimonial budgets of the country's wealthiest politicians, industrialists and celebrities, however, have had a trickle-down effect. A wedding of any scale is an important event for a family in India, and the cost of financing a wedding decades down the road is well-known. "Other than daily life, where individuals are pretty self contained, a wedding is an opportunity to bring in everyone you've been associated with to show the culmination of twenty five years of work," says Gourav Rakshit, business head of Shaadi, an online matchmaking site. But the competitive pressure to keep up with, if not outdo, other families has a downside. "Most people are mortgaged to the hilt or take o
ut very large loans," he says. Some lenders have even begun offering "auspicious" wedding loans to families looking to finance an impressive spectacle on the big day.
With guest lists that often stretch into the thousands for high-profile weddings, and with RSVP's still a rarity, hosts are forced to overcompensate, says Patel. "I organized a local wedding where we booked food for 500 people and only 400 came." (See an album of past royal weddings.)
The escalating extravagance and cost of India's weddings has, of course, left some unimpressed. "They should be smaller," says Rayapati Sambasiva Rao, a member of parliament for the ruling Congress Party. "There are so many people lavishly spending $3 or 4 million, they can use the money for charity and reduce the expense."
Excessive wedding spending is increasingly common not only among the richest Indians, but also among the poorest — prompting official alarm. In April, Kuruppasserry Varkey Thomas, India's Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution floated the idea of government curbing the excess and waste by capping the number of guests, as w
ell as the dishes that can be served, at weddings. In a country where hundreds of millions live below the poverty line, food prices have become an explosive political issue. In politics, perceived indifference to the plight of those struggling to feed their families can be devastating. In late 2009, members of parliament were rebuked by the Prime Minister for their appetite for first class travel and 5-Star hotels, even if paid for out of their own pocket.
Still, increased spending on weddings, is to be expected, says Ashish Abrol, founder and CEO of BigIndianWedding, a one-stop shop for all things matrimonial. "We're an older society, but our display of wealth shows were very new to this kind of money," he says. "People haven't seen wealth like this before, so in the initial stages you have ostentatious displays of wealth. There's this absolute need for display."
To make a splash that gets attention, families have turned over the reins to an army of wedding planners charged with making the big day memorable for guests, not just the bride and groom. "Traditionally, when you went to a wedding you knew what to expect, bu
t now everyone's trying to give you something you wouldn't expect," says Rakshit. "Given there are so many weddings, it's hard to be unique." (See a video of royal weddings and American marriage.)
Gone are the days when it was enough to simply feed a thousand friends and relatives. When Indian politician Kanwar Singh Tanwar married off his son last month, 15,000 people attended the ceremony. Having a guest list that resembles the crowd at a sporting event is not all that unusual.
Bridal couples arriving by helicopter? Old news on the Indian wedding circuit. So is hiring a Bollywood actor to perform, or just rub shoulders with guests. The practice of hiring celebrities is so common that there's even an industry insider price list of A-listers. Shah Rukh Khan, India's biggest star, lists at $750,000, while movie heartthrob Salman Khan comes for about half the price.
Then, of course, India has royalty of its own. The Indian royal families of the British colonial period no longer wield power, but with family fortunes still intact, royal weddings a
glamour
re well known for their opulence. In December, when a prince was married in the western Indian state of Gujarat, the entourage rode through the streets on a white stallion while thousands of townspeople lined the streets and leaned over balconies showering the couple with applause — and money. (See TIME's complete coverage of the Royal Wedding.)

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