‘We did it!’ exclaimed an ecstatic Penny over the webcam, joined by Leonard who was equally delighted as their friends in Pasadena watched them tie the knot in a Las Vegas wedding chapel. This, however, is a wedding scene from the reel life of the popular American sitcom, ‘The Big-Bang Theory’ (Cendrowski, 2007). Their choice for organising a virtual wedding was voluntary, premised on their long term romance. Cut to real life, amid the novel coronavirus crisis, will ceremonies like these be the ‘new normal’? Will technology replace big-fat consumerist weddings? What might be the plight of those involved in the wedding industry?

These are some of the questions which might be difficult to answer at the moment, given the seriousness of the pandemic we are in. With the amplification of COVID-19 cases, there has almost been a complete halt in economic activities all over the world. The service sector in India has been badly hit.[i] There has been a historic spike in layoffs, reinforcing fears of a deep recession in Asia’s third-largest economy[ii]. Although everyone has their resultant share of difficulties amid this crisis, some of the more privileged are trying to make this period creative and worthwhile. Those devoid of such luxuries and are robbed of their livelihood, food as well as shelter.

However, here I would like to take a slight detour from the class divide, and talk specifically about another sector, which I started this post with, namely; the consumerist wedding ceremonies. The much-feted Indian wedding industry has been badly impacted. Most weddings have been postponed. In some cases made into a very private affair. This has led to a huge crisis in the wedding market all over the globe, which in India alone adds up to 50 billion U.S dollars, as estimated by a KMPG report in 2017[iii].

The last decades have witnessed the rise and legitimacy of a development model that made consumerism an essential part of people’s lives. In India after the 1991 economic policies to integrate its economy more closely into global capitalism, we have seen the rise of consumerism and the demise of austerity.[iv] Indian weddings transformed. It became one more site for conspicuous spending- a veritable industry with the involvement of various service providers engaged as designers of wedding attires, jewellery, wedding cards, hair stylists, caterers, florists, decorators, photography, choreographers…The list can go on.

At the same breath, it must also be noted that this idea of a planned, elaborate, consumerist wedding is never debatable since they are deemed as a rite, larger than life, and hence a right in the global culture (Otnes & Pleck, 2003)[v]. The proliferation of service industry and corporate marketers in neo-liberalised capitalism, under the broader pale of cultural and economic globalisation, is accompanied by the rise of such peculiar consumption patterns (Wolff, 2013)[vi] which Veblen terms as conspicuous consumption (Veblen 1899).

India has seen an increasing number of celebrities indulging in such spectacular celebrations. We have witnessed many in the recent past. The Ambani weddings, preceded by glamorous weddings of film and cricket stars including Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli, Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh. Popular culture in the form of soaps as well as Bollywood movies has also had their fair share in portraying lavish weddings including the various rituals like haldi and mehendi ceremony amalgamated with cocktail and bachelorette/hen parties. Not surprisingly, a media that has flourished on highlighting celebrity lifestyles spend money and energy to capture every detail of these weddings to people who could aspire, if not have weddings of such scale. Celebrity weeklies (i.e., People, OK!, In Touch, Us, and Star) race to secure exclusive coverage rights to stars’ milestones, often paying millions with hopes of high newsstand numbers. [vii]

Such cultures have in some ways set a standard that individuals can aspire to recreate in some muted fashion. Scholars and marketing agencies alike have argued that weddings (as well as engagements and honeymoons) allow consumers to inject magic in people’s lives

In a culture defined by show and glamour, weddings become ways for families to either communicate their current social prestige or to attempt to elevate their social status. A range of theorists contributed to such an understanding of consumption and its relation to one’s status. Baudrillard in his seminal work on the Consumer Society talks about the proliferation of consumer objects, of packaging, and its mythical qualities.[viii] Bourdieu analysed how an individual’s ‘taste’ demarcates their class distinctive way of living. Bourdieu’s question in Distinction is ‘What are the economic and social determinants of taste?’ He argues that ‘taste classifies, and it classifies the classifier. Social subjects, classified by their classifications, distinguish themselves by the distinctions they make, between the beautiful and the ugly, the distinguished and the vulgar, …’ [ix] The kind of wedding one has in a consumer society is thus a marker of one’s social ‘distinction’. This spiraling tendency to do one better than the other through consumption has come to a rude halt with the onset of COVID-19.

There has been a sharp break in the entire supply chain on which this industry strives. With the strict ban imposed on public gatherings over 20-50, industry insiders are apprehensive about their future.[x] Since grand celebrations may not be viable couples have made video conferencing apps like Zoom their new wedding destination. With such changes, the industry sees no better option than to reinvent according to the situation. Indian fashion designer Ritu Kumar explains how the thinking process of consumers would now go back to the value of money, and thereby the emphasis of the fashion industry will have to shift towards sustainable wedding fashion as per the demand.[xi] Furthermore, demand for clothes that photograph well[xii] will now be a priority since most of the guests will have to witness the wedding virtually through pictures and videos.

The impact of the lockdown has dealt a heavy blow on the catering business. Sridhar Natarajan, a caterer recounts how they have launched a home catering service to stay afloat during the Covid-19 crisis as well as to stay in touch with their customers.[xiii] The promising wedding photo-shoots are also at stake. The role of wedding photographers has now been taken up by family members and friends. The same fate also awaits destination weddings, as such weddings will probably be limited to places within the driving distance of the city.[xiv] Lamenting on the bleakness of the situation, Divya Chadha, founder of a wedding and event planning company claims how ‘the big fat Indian weddings’ will no longer be ‘big’ and ‘fat’.[xv] The only hope of all these service providers lies with the end of this pandemic.

However, the questions remain unanswered at this point whether the situation will ever get back to the ‘normal’. Will sustainable weddings be the new norm? And finally, will we be witnessing an era of virtual weddings where like Howard Wolowitz (a fictional character from The Big Bang Theory) we would type ‘It was a beautiful ceremony’ on the comment section? That, only time will tell.

[i] https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/indicators/covid-19-impact-services-pmi-falls-to-5-month-low/articleshow/75016364.cms, accessed on 23^rd May 2020.

[ii]www.deccanchronicle.com/amp/business/economy/060520/coronavirus-lockdown-causes-historic-spike-in-layoffs-in-india.html, accessed on 16th May 2020.

[iii]http://yourstory.com/2020/03/coronavirus-covid19-impact-wedding-industry, accessed on 16th May 2020.

[iv] Chaudhuri, Maitrayee 2017 Refashioning India: Gender, Media and a Transformed Public Discourse. Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan.

[v]Otnes, C.C & Pleck, E.H. (2003). Cinderella Dreams. London: University of California Press.

[vi] Wolff, K. (2013). ‘When More is Not More: Consumption and Consumerism within the Neoliberal Early Childhood Assemblage(s)’, Global Studies of Childhood 3(3).

[vii]https://www.businessinsider.com/kardashian-cover-wedding-exclusive-2011-6?IR=T, accessed on 23^rd May 2020.

[vii] https://monoskop.org/images/d/de/Baudrillard_Jean_The_consumer_society_myths_and_structures_1970.pdf.

[ix] https://web.stanford.edu/class/think53/bourdieu17.pdf.

[x]https://m.economictimes.com/news/corporate-trends/wedding-industry-in-crisis-as-most-weddings-cancelled-some-rescheduled/amp_articleshow/74805356.cms, accessed on 17th May2020.

[xi]https://m.timesofindia.com/life-style/fashion/buzz/how-the-wedding-fashion-trends-will-change-post-lockdown/amp_articleshow/75732452.cms, accessed on 17th May 2020.

[xii] Ibid

[xiii] www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/food/how-are-the-wedding-cateres-finding-innovative-ways-to-stay-afloat-during-the-covid-19-crisis/article31574432.ece/amp/, accessed on 17^th May 2020.

[xiv] www.indiatoday.in/amp/india-today-insight/story/the-wedding-lockdown-1671797-2020-04-27, accessed on 17th May 2020.

[xv] ibid

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Moureen Kalita is a Doctoral candidate at Centre for the Study of Social Systems (CSSS), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). She is currently working as a guest faculty in the Department of Sociology, Gauhati University.