The Price of Getting Married in Kashmir

In the rush for lavish weddings, many in the Valley are paying with debt, delay, and heartbreak.

- Saboora Majid

Weddings in Kashmir have turned into something else.

Once, they were warm gatherings, stitched together by love and shared plates. People sat cross-legged on carpets, scooping handfuls of wazwan, smiling across steaming cups of noon chai.

There was singing, not with loudspeakers, but with voices that rose softly in small, packed rooms. Neighbours helped. Relatives brought bread. A wedding felt like it belonged to the entire lane.

Now, it belongs to the highest bidder.

Weddings in the Valley have become grand displays of tents, glittering stages, camera crews, and singers flown in to perform.

The bride's walk to the stage is no longer a festive family moment. It is a show, filmed and posted, judged and shared.

Families seem to plan not for the marriage, but for the photographs.