THE GREAT INDIAN DESTINATION WEDDING

SHAPED BY TRAVEL, TASTE, AND A RESTLESS GENERATION, DESTINATION WEDDINGS ARE REWRITING HOW INDIA CELEBRATES MARRIAGE IN 2025

- ANWESHA SANTRA

IT IS NO LONGER ENOUGH TO HAVE A wedding at the neighbourhood club or in the family's favourite banquet hall. India's younger generation of couples is swapping predictable lawns for palaces, forests, and mist-draped mountains. If marriage is meant to be the beginning of a new journey, they want it to start with an actual sojourn. Destination weddings have moved from being an indulgence for the few to a phenomenon that has reshaped how young Indians imagine tying the knot.

Surveys by bodies like Skyscanner and WeddingWire tell the story clearly: an overwhelming 85 per cent of Indians say they either plan to or already have celebrated a destination wedding. What was once considered extravagant is now edging close to normal. The generational divide makes it even more striking. Nearly half of India's Gen Z respondents-49 per cent-say their dream is to marry away from home, while only about a third of Millennials share the same aspiration. The younger the couple, the more restless their hearts seem to be.

When you look at where they are headed, the picture becomes even more colourful.

Rajasthan remains the crown jewel, its sand dunes and sandstone forts providing the kind of spectacle that no banquet hall can match.