It is the ‘big fat Indian wedding’ season again, and families are literally in a fast-finger first race to reserve the venues. There’s just one problem. The most sought-after metro properties are now booked a full year to a year and a half in advance, with a rise in rates by 30-50%, and this is where couples are turning to destination weddings in tier 2 and tier 3 cities.
The destination wedding market is projected to reach $36.8 billion by 2025. A report by CAIT estimates that 46 lakh weddings this season are estimated to generate Rs 6.5 lakh crore in business. Though the number of weddings is roughly similar to last year, the outlay per celebration has surged, rising steadily from Rs 3.75 lakh crore in 2022 to Rs 4.74 lakh crore in 2023, Rs 5.9 lakh crore in 2024, and now reaching a historic peak.
The metro bottleneck
Across India, smaller cities like Bikaner, Coorg, Kochi, Indore, Rishikesh, Mussoorie, are beginning to host the kinds of weddings that once belonged only to metros or to marquee destinations like Udaipur and Goa.
“We’ve seen roughly 30% growth in demand for emerging Tier-2 and Tier-3 destinations just between last year and this year,” Lakshminarayan B, co-founder of Meragi, a wedding services company that operates across metros and major resort towns, told financialexpress.com. “Venue shortages in big cities play a role, but novelty and value are huge drivers too.”
“Many of our clients are well-travelled, and their guests are well-travelled. They want a destination that feels fresh but still accessible. That is why places like Bikaner, Alleppey, Mahabaleshwar and Gokarna are suddenly on top of the list,” Anjali Tolani, Vice President of Celebrations at Tamarind Global, told financialexpress.com.
The economics of escape
Elsewhere is often a surprisingly large universe. Kestone Utsav, which manages weddings across India, has seen enquiries for non-metro venues rise between 28% and 32% in the past two years. “The shift is clear,” Nikhil Mahajan, the company’s director, told financialexpress.com. A premium metro wedding in the country can usually cost Rs 25 to 50 lakh per day at a top hotel, and the same in a tier 2 city can cost a quarter of the money.
Even as costs rise across smaller cities, they remain significantly more affordable than international options, a comparison that many families now calculate.
Tier-2 weddings, depending on scale and number of guests, range between Rs 30 lakh and Rs 1.2 crore for 100–300 attendees, while more intimate celebrations in boutique destinations like Khajuraho, Alleppey or Jim Corbett begin around Rs 8 lakh to Rs 20 lakh for 50–100 people, as per data shared by Kestone Utsav.
International destinations, by contrast, demand a much steeper outlay: Thailand, Bali, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Oman and the UAE typically start at Rs 60 lakh and climb to Rs 2.5 crore for similar guest counts, driven by forex fluctuations, visa-linked coordination and overseas logistics.
It is not only about budgets. Planning timelines have transformed as well. Metro weddings were once organised in spurts of familial efficiency. Now couples, particularly double-income pairs and NRIs, are deeply involved in the process, from the colour of the mandap to the playlist at the sangeet.
This trend has also been acknowledged by state governments, with the Kerala government’s tourism department having launched a dedicated campaign and a wedding microsite to promote the state’s backwaters, beaches, and hills as ideal venues for destination weddings. Furthermore, the state has also claimed that in 2025, it hosted over 1,000 destination weddings.
Kerala is not alone here; the Karnataka government, as of today, has launched an initiative to allow weddings to be held at its select heritage sites, such as Chitradurga fort, as per a report by TOI.
Instagram in play
Social media has only intensified the drift toward smaller cities. Instagram reels, YouTube wedding vloggers and Pinterest aesthetics have rewritten what a ‘dream venue’ looks like.
Couples want natural light, heritage backdrops, water bodies, and drone-friendly vistas. These are typically ingredients that metros do not always offer. “Social media has completely changed venue aspiration,” Mahajan said. “People no longer want traditional banquet halls. They want immersive landscapes and photogenic architecture, which smaller destinations often have in abundance.”
Google search behaviour tells a similar story. According to Meragi’s internal data, Jaipur, Udaipur and Goa together receive more than 100,000 wedding-related searches each month, but the next tier of destinations, Rishikesh, Jodhpur, Dehradun, Mahabaleshwar, Shimla, Coorg, Mussoorie, now collectively account for over 51,000.
The hotel economics
Hotels in upcoming destinations are typically 20–25% cheaper than their metro counterparts, Lakshminarayan said, even after accounting for logistics.
Tamarind Global estimates families save 20–30% on accommodation and meals alone. And many reinvest those savings into décor, hospitality or entertainers, upgrading rather than downsizing the celebration.
Even as demand surges, smaller cities are racing to meet it. Major hotel chains like Marriott to Taj, and IHG are expanding aggressively into non-metro markets, adding properties in Mussoorie, Kochi, Patiala, Jim Corbett and Ranthambore, with more slated through 2029.
However, no shift is smooth enough. Smaller destinations often lack late-night flights, large-scale logistics staff, or backup vendors. Many décor and entertainment teams still travel in from bigger cities, adding to expense and complexity.
But planners insist these hurdles rarely deter couples. “In the last two years, vendor prices in Tier-2 and Tier-3 destinations have risen,” Tolani said, “but even with a 15–25% increase, they remain more affordable than metros.”
What began as a spillover from metro shortages no longer looks like one. Mahajan, who watches demand patterns across regions, believes the shift is permanent. “Smaller cities have become the new normal. They offer affordability, cultural comfort, and stunning experiences. As connectivity improves and hotels expand, this trend will only strengthen.”
Perhaps it was inevitable. As weddings grew more elaborate, more photogenic, more personal, the cities that once held them began to feel too tight. And so couples drifted outward, toward hills, rivers, heritage towns, where the light is softer, and the logistics are kinder. What the metros lost in inventory, the rest of India gained in imagination.
