The wedding day is always "your day". What they don't tell you is that personal choice and freedom don't come in totality and tradition, expectations and feelings cannot be ignored. In its 2017 report, KPMG estimated that the Indian wedding industry was $50 billion in size, second only to the US at $70 billion. And that's where the designer, stylist, make-up guru, and jewellery makers come into the picture. "It's a bizarre industry, and there was only so much expenditure that I could justify," says Priti Rao, Asia director-Dalberg Design, and Mumbai resident.

When Rao got engaged to her now husband Vijay Kumar in June 2019, a "simple wedding" was what she wanted. "But simplicity doesn't come cheap. I didn't think that a wedding would require so much production," she laughs.