Destination wedding in India: Choosing destination, how much it costs, how to plan

The big, fat Indian wedding may well have been on a diet these past two years. In an unlikely fallout, Covid helped shed the financial flab off weddings, slimming down the scale, trimming down guest lists, and forging a new trend from what was considered the preserve of the uber rich. Destination weddings went desi—in more ways than one.
 By Linkup Influence Sat, 29 Mar 2025
Destination wedding
From luxurious jaunts in foreign lands and chic locations in the country, the concept has expanded to include smaller hill or beach weddings on a budget. The chic snobbery confined to a palatial Udaipur or an exotic Lakshadweep wedding has trickled down to hotels and resorts in unassuming tier 2 and 3 cities with beautiful locales. The Covid-confined Indian wants to break free from local, large functions to indulge in outstation, intimate celebrations.

There has been a considerable shift after Covid, with people from all walks of life, across strata and smaller towns aspiring for destination weddings,” says Chetan Vohra, Co-founder & MD, Weddingline, a wedding management firm that has organised top-notch weddings for celebs like Priyanka Chopra, Yuvraj Singh and Vivek Oberoi, among others. “People are realising that a wedding can be a celebration with a vacation thrown in,” he adds.

They now understand the value of close-knit weddings with 150-200 guests, instead of big, fat ones with 500-800 people, as well as the fact that it can be done in a much more fun, relaxed, creative and personalised manner,” says Shweta Acharya, Founder, Baraati Inc, a leading Delhi-based wedding planner. “Events can be conceptualised around two families instead of doing it separately,” she adds. “Another factor is that, after the pandemic, all the local properties are booked. So people are going out to have something different,” says Rituraj Khanna, CEO, Q Events & Weddings, a leading Noida-based wedding management firm.

This has led to the emergence of several new wedding destinations in tier 2 and 3 cities, apart from the traditional hubs in Rajasthan, Goa and Kerala. “We are seeing new destinations like Kalimpong, Wayanad and Dharamsala, where people want small weddings because they are not only close to the domiciles of bride or groom, but the logistics too are easily managed,” says Vikram Lalvani, MD & CEO, Sterling Holiday Resorts. Agrees Shreyas Kudalkar of Kings Hotel & Resort: “Places like Alibaug, Shimla and Coorg are affordable locations with extremely pleasant weather that offer a variety of travel choices and are easy to schedule things.” So if you, too, have been planning a destination wedding, read on to know how much it can cost and the cities you can pick.

Tags

Around the web