If someone else is paying just enjoy.

Indian weddings, presumably of the rich, have been analysed by one Uma Shashikant, who has a PhD in Finance and is the Director of Centre for Investment Education & Learning. In her analysis she makes several criticisms of how Indian weddings are conducted. Weddings are no longer the simple affairs of the past and have become elaborate events where artisans, each with his own expertise, offer niche services. Perhaps the author is unaware that Pramod Mittal spent over 60 million Euros on his daughter's wedding in Barcelona when he had borrowed Rs 1.30 billion from the State Bank of India, which had restructured an earlier loan of Rs 300 million. His brother, Lakshmi Mittal spent 46 million Euros on his daughter's wedding in 2004. Surely, it is much better for accumulated black money to be spent inside India, where it boosts the economy, than to be spent abroad. Those who have built up a reputation " can charge a bomb " while others earn very little. You pay for the best. If lawyers in Delhi can charge Rs 1.5 million per hearing why should a florist or a caterer not charge for his services. If people are stupid enough to want the groom to arrive on a white mare in today's world then they should be ready to shell out Rs 100,000 for one hour. We have to remember that Hindu weddings can only be held on certain days of the year so these people have to earn enough to tide them over the months when there are no weddings at all. If there are thousands of weddings occurring at the same time there is immense competition for services, which pushes up their value. That is how markets operate, whether in shares or in decorating. It is wonderful that these people, many of whom have little formal education, are so adept at using the internet. Weddings cannot be standardised for many reasons. Perhaps the most important reason is how much money parents are willing to spend, which depends on how rich they are. Secondly, rich people usually have very few children and so want to make their child's wedding something to remember. And finally, there are more so called 'love marriages' today where customs of the families maybe very different. A Punjabi marrying a Marathi will be necessarily different to a Tamil marrying a Bengali, although all are Hindus. These people hate paying taxes. Very normal. Every candidate for the Republican Party in the US promises to cut taxes, the only difference is by how much. They take payment in cash because otherwise they will have to pay Service Tax, VAT and Income Tax. They will need PAN number, TIN number, Service Tax number, and other numbers, have to file returns, which may need the services of an accountant, and maybe harassed by tax officials. Also a lot are from villages and can show their income as agricultural, which is totally free from taxes. Just as politicians do. Lavish Indian weddings are great for the economy because they circulate black money from rich to poor. Don't analyse, just enjoy the single malt.