The big shift: Wedding season rises to rival Diwali as India's new advertising climax

India’s wedding season is no longer a cultural moment. It is becoming a second festive season in the advertising calendar as brands recalibrate media budgets and consumer targeting for 2025. Agencies say the November to mid December wedding window, backed by nearly 4.6 million weddings and a 6.5 lakh crore wedding economy, is now commanding the energy, confidence and spending once reserved only for Diwali.

“Shaadi season 2025 is being treated like a second festive season,” said Vaishal Dalal, Co founder and Director, Excellent Publicity. “Many clients are either front loading or extending Q4 activity into the wedding months rather than concentrating spend only around Diwali and Christmas.”

Deepmala, Founder and CEO of The Visual House, agrees the shift is unlike anything the industry has seen before. “This year, I can genuinely feel brands treating the wedding season almost if not more the way they treat Diwali,” she said. “Earlier, the festive calendar was the unquestioned climax of the year. But in 2025, the shaadi season has become just as powerful, if not more strategic for certain categories.”

Ad spends up 10 to 15 percent, but inflation is doing some of the heavy lifting

Across agencies, wedding season ad spends have risen 10 to 15 percent year on year. Dalal estimates roughly half of this uplift is genuine incremental activity, driven by new campaigns and new advertisers. The other half is simply the cost of doing business in 2025, with media inflation hovering at 8 to 9 percent.

Deepmala sees a similar dual trend. “A good portion of the increase is very real consumer demand. Families are spending more, weddings are getting larger,” she said, citing CAIT data that attributes 6 to 10 percent of the rise to genuine market momentum, with the remaining 3 to 6 percent driven by media inflation.

Creators are amplifying this demand curve too. “Influencers are adding to it in a big way,” said Ramya Ramachandran, Founder and CEO, Whoppl. “So many creators are doing ‘I am getting married in 60 days’, ‘bridal diaries’, ‘my wedding edit’. It becomes a curated handbook for anyone on a similar journey.”

Brands are quietly shifting festive money into weddings

Wedding season no longer sits as a footnote under festive. Agencies say brands are deliberately moving Diwali budgets into the November to December window because that is when high consideration categories see maximum purchase intent.

“We are diverting festive money into the wedding season because that is where consumers are actually making big decisions,” Deepmala said, referencing conversations across lifestyle, retail and kitchen appliance brands.

Dalal observes the same pattern: “Brands are shifting portions of their Q4 and festive spend into wedding focused activity.”

Fashion, beauty, jewellery, luxury, ethnic wear, consumer tech, durables, beauty, grooming and fintech are the most aggressive reallocators. Even salons are entering the fray with festive bridal packages.

The biggest spending spikes: jewellery, fashion, beauty and luxury

Across respondents, one category towers above the rest.

Jewellery is driving the biggest jump, with Dalal noting 25 to 30 percent year on year increases in some markets. Fashion and apparel are right behind, powered by cinematic creator led mini series, lookbooks and vernacular content.

Luxury is leaning in too. “Weddings give luxury brands the perfect high aspiration canvas,” said Ramya. Many luxury players expect 30 to 50 percent higher seasonal sales, which has unlocked big budget, high gloss campaigns.

Beauty and grooming brands are treating weddings like a cultural playground. Fintech is expanding fast with EMIs, gifting propositions and wedding specific acquisition funnels.

Nikhil Rangnekar, CEO of Media Circle, adds nuance to the category mix. “Categories that are driving this year are jewellery and fashion while durables seem to have taken a backseat,” he said. “Luxury brands are sticking to impactful high cost media like airports, live cricket and cinema.”

Overspending to compensate for slower growth

Some categories are using the wedding window to fix a soft year.

Dalal points to jewellery, mid market fashion and parts of consumer durables and electronics that are aggressively increasing spending to recover weaker H1 performance. Fintech is also overspending to accelerate customer acquisition.

Ambika Sharma, Founder and Chief Strategist, Pulp Strategy, echoes this. “Some D2C fashion, beauty and fintech brands are leaning very aggressively into wedding season to offset slower growth in regular months,” she said.

Luxury versus mid market: two very different playbooks

Wedding season has split the marketing world into two distinct strategies.

Luxury brands are immersive and experience first. “They invest in curated experiences, high jewellery showcases, designer partnerships and personalised shopping,” Ambika said.

Deepmala describes luxury budgets as “the kind that prioritise aura over algorithms” with high profile collaborations, couture showcases, CTV placements and emotionally rich films.

Mid market brands, however, are laser focused on ROI. “Their storytelling is grounded in performance and precision,” Deepmala said. They are investing in vernacular creators, performance hybrids, marketplace retargeting and dynamic creative optimisation. Ambika calls it a “performance led route with platform heavy campaigns, creators and targeted digital bursts.”

Is wedding season really the new festive?

Not everyone believes shaadi season can match Diwali’s national scale. “Diwali remains the single biggest season in the country,” said Nikhil Rangnekar. “Weddings are celebrated by a much smaller number of people compared to Diwali and therefore the two can never be compared.”

But even he expects wedding spends to grow around 15 percent this year, reinforcing that while Diwali is still the peak, wedding season is becoming the country’s most important second wave.

India’s wedding economy has rewritten the media calendar. Categories that once treated weddings as a secondary opportunity now see them as the sharpest moment of demand. Budgets are moving, creators are accelerating discovery, and luxury to D2C brands are carving out their own wedding season strategies.

Shaadi season is no longer an extension of festive. It is shaping into a standalone marketing moment with its own energy, its own economics and its own peak in the advertising cycle.