The Indian Wedding Industry Association (IWIA) was launched in New Delhi on Tuesday with the stated aim of bringing structure, policy alignment and institutional representation to India’s wedding ecosystem.
At the launch, founders of the IWIA said that India’s wedding industry which supports hospitality, tourism, jewellery, fashion, design, logistics, MSMEs and artisan communities was entering a new phase of institutional organisation. They said that the association aimed to serve as a representative body focussed on policy advocacy, research, professional standards and international outreach.
At the launch, Neeraj Dhawan, Founder and Chairman, IWIA said the association will bring together three primary silos of the wedding ecosystem planners, venues and suppliers while also engaging with state governments that are keen to promote wedding tourism.
“We will be inviting all the planners, wedding planners, venues and hoteliers, as well as suppliers. These are the three large silos as we call them. Venues are subdivided into hotels, banquet halls, farmhouses and destination venues. We will also invite state governments that want to promote weddings,” Dhawan told India & You on the sidelines of the launch.
IWIA aims to strengthen and promote weddings within India
Dhawan clarified that the immediate mandate of IWIA was to strengthen and promote weddings within India, in alignment with the Ministry of Tourism’s Wed in India campaign.
“Our mandate is to promote weddings in India. We are part of the Wed in India campaign of the Ministry of Tourism. Indian weddings are going abroad, that can be the second step. First, our effort is to do successful weddings in India,” he said.
He said the industry had undergone structural change in recent years, particularly after the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Five years back, the biggest disruption happened in the form of Covid-19. After that, a lot of new ideas came in. The industry is now getting structured. Systems are being implemented. Wedding planners are putting processes in place. Our job as planners is to make weddings seamless for families so they don’t get stressed. That can only happen when you have structure and processes,” Dhawan added.
On membership, Dhawan said applications were now open and will be reviewed by the board. The association will operate on a paid membership model.
“It is a paid membership. Currently, the fee is around INR 35,000, as mentioned on the website. Memberships will be scrutinised and reported. We do not want a very large number of members initially. We want to restrict it to people who understand the industry,” says Dhawan.
The association aims to serve as a representative body focussed on policy advocacy
He added that student and intern memberships will also be introduced to support newcomers to the sector.
“We will also be launching membership for students and interns. We will handhold them and guide them. Our mandate is to promote, teach and train people in the wedding industry,” Dhawan said.
According to the founders, IWIA also aims to function as a central reference point for stakeholders and families planning weddings.
“We will be collecting data in terms of membership venues, planners and what they can offer. Anyone thinking of planning a wedding can come to the association. It will be a one-stop place, though not a commercial organisation,” he said.
Shagun Sethi, Founder and Vice President, IWIA said the association was not driven by numerical targets but by the need to create a unified platform for a fragmented industry.
Neeraj Dhawan
“We are not trying to sell anything. We want to provide a fraternity, an association where people from the trade have a place to collaborate. At this point, there is not a single entity addressing only the Indian wedding industry and all its allied members,” Sethi told India & You.
She described the association as inclusive, covering both large stakeholders and small service providers who form part of the wedding value chain.
“The Indian wedding has many nuances from the ghodiwala, who provides mares, to the drumwala who organises music, to the jeweller, to the makeup artist. Everybody is welcome. We have a form that needs to be filled. The board will review your body of work and then approve the membership. We have various tiers of membership,” she added.
Sethi said the Ministry of Tourism had encouraged the formation of such a body to fill a gap in industry representation.
Shagun Sethi
“The ministry felt there was a lacuna that needed to be filled. We picked up on that idea and ran with it. We are an association of doers. The Ministry wants India on the world map and wants Non Resident Indians to come home for weddings. We want to provide a platform where someone sitting outside India can see that these are legitimate and trusted professionals. It gives credibility,” said Sethi.
With its four pillars Advocacy, Standards, Growth and Intelligence IWIA plans to engage with government authorities on policy alignment, support vendor development and skill-building, promote India internationally through trade participation, and generate research-led insights for the sector.
The association’s governing board includes Neeraj Dhawan, Raghubir Singh, Barun Gupta, Shagun Sethi, Rishi Khandelwal, Raksha Chawla, Saloni Gupta, Rajat Dhingra and Naveen Rizvi.
