Wedding bells ring in high sales of clothes, jewellery, cars

Chennai: Last week, Taj Coromandel hosted ‘The Luxury Affair’, a wedding expo by Razzmatazz group offering everything from designer clothes, jewellery, top-end cosmetics and luxury cars for Chennai bridezillas looking for ways to make their ‘I do’ day perfect . The footfalls showed that Tamil Nadu’s summer wedding economy is booming.
In April-July, 40 lakh weddings are scheduled across the country. Says Zubin Songadwala, GM ITC Grand Chola and area manager ITC Hotels, south: “As compared to Q1 of 2019, ITC Grand Chola has seen an exponential increase in wedding events, with room revenue almost doubling. Banquet revenues have increased by 20%. The primary growth drivers are higher demand for domestic destinations after international destinations became logistically challenging.”
For ITC’s Grand Chola property, the USP is the large banqueting space in the heart of the city, besides the cuisine. The hotel is also doing a lot of outdoor catering at homes as “many people are opting for home and farmhouse weddings with outdoor catering from ITC restaurants,” says Songadwala.
Destination weddings are adding to the rush. Says Shubhangi N, general manager, sales and marketing, GRT Hotels & Resorts: “Destination weddings are now the most sought after at beaches, hill resorts and culturally acclaimed cities.” GRT’s beach resort Radisson Temple Bay in Mahabalipuram and Radisson Pondicherry are getting more queries this season. Also in demand are hill resorts at Great Trails Kodaikanal, Yercaud and Wayanad,” she adds. Thanjavur, a temple town, is also on the wedding map.
While the hotel rush is expected to continue well into next year, jewelery sales are up. This Akshaya Tritiya, driven by summer wedding demand, gold sales increased 25% over pre-pandemic 2019 despite a 50% increase in gold prices between January and April . Says Arun Narayan, VP-category marketing & retail, Tanishq: “This summer, much of the demand is from tier-I and tier-II towns.” Since 60-70% of jewelery buying in smaller towns and semi-rural markets happens during weddings, the demand spurt will be higher this year, he adds. Brands such as Tanishq, Kalyan and others have introduced special collections.
Similarly, silk sari sales are up as families shop not only for the wedding trousseau but also for gift saris. Says Jeyasree Ravi, founder of Palam Silks: “We see high demand not only for muhurtam saris to be worn by the bride but also lighter saris in semi cotton, organza and light silks.” The footfalls are much higher than in 2019 as people buy Kanjeevaram silk saris for birthdays and anniversaries too, she adds.
It’s also the time families opt for new vehicles for weddings. With car supplies badly hit by semi-conductor chip shortage, the wedding demand spurt has pushed dealers to offer dummy cars. Says a prominent Chennai-based car dealer: “Typically we are offering demo or test drive cars for weddings because the selected models take four to six months to be delivered. We dress up our demo cars for the wedding and then deliver the new car when it arrives from the factory.”