Ever been to a fake wedding? It’s the newest party trend in town

What’s not to like about weddings? The food, the dance, the music, the gossip… But for those seeking a more relaxed experience without perhaps the unpleasant bump-ins, forced conversations or long queues for food, there’s a new trend on the block — fake wedding events. It’s quite simply a wedding without the bride and groom or the attendant stress and pressures of the ceremony.

“People want to dress up and go to a wedding. And at our parties, we don’t want folks to simply turn up, have a few drinks, dance and leave. We want to give them the entire wedding experience — family-like bonding, great food, Insta-worthy photo-ops, and so on,” says Ayaan Vaid, co-founder of Delhi-based events company, Jumma Ki Raat. The company is one of the first to organise ticketed wedding-themed parties in India. Since its launch in October 2024, Jumma Ki Raat has organised two fake sangeet parties, the recent one held just last week.

(L-R) Alisha Chouri, Nidhi Nair, Paras Chaudhari and Gaurav Joshi, founders of Mumbai-based Saddi Galli events company.

New age partying?

Earlier this month, an invite to one such ‘fake wedding’ in Noida went viral on social media. The artfully designed invitation promised ‘live band and dhol’ and a complimentary alcoholic beverage while asking guests to be attired in traditional wear. Entry prices ranged from ₹999 to ₹1,499.

The idea seems to have takers across India — bar and restaurant chain Lord of the Drinks organised fake sangeet nights at some of its outlets in Madhya Pradesh recently, as did Bengaluru’s Raahi Neo Kitchen & Bar with a ‘Big Fat Fake Indian Sangeet’. Bengaluru-based Third Place, Kolkata-based event organiser Blackout, and Auckland-based BollySphere have welcomed guests to similar events as well.

A mock wedding event organised by Cornell University’s South Asian Council in 2024.

Time to collab

When you walk into a faux wedding event (with an average runtime of four to five hours), there’s everything you need to make it seem real — elaborate decorations, marigold flowers, live bands, mehendi artists, photo booths and even an ‘astro’ parrot picking out fun cards to determine the romantic fate of the party-goers.

“Pinterest and social media pages of wedding planners are my go-to places for research when it comes to décor ideas. I even picked up the idea for gol-gappa shots online,” says Alisha Chouri, one of the founders of Mumbai-based Saddi Galli. The two-month-old brand has so far hosted three ‘Scam Sangeet’ events in Nagpur and Mumbai. Goa, Kolkata and Miami are their next stops. One of Saddi Galli’s fake sangeet events, which was attended by nearly 800 guests, says Chouri, saw the company bring cosmetics brand Lakmé on board as a hairstyling and make-up partner. Tickets for such events can start at ₹299 and go up to ₹7,000.

A hairstyling session at Saddi Galli’s fake sangeet event.

At Third Place’s Sangeet Socials, collaborations take a musical turn. “A songwriter friend of mine, actually released his original at our first Sangeet Social last week. It was a nice addition to the programme, to set the overall vibe of the event,” says Anurag Pandey, founder and CEO. He says that these events, while being all about fun and partying, must also result in a curated, thoughtful and meaningful experience. And to achieve that, the Sangeet Social isn’t an ‘open for all event’.

Once the guests (capped at 40) sign up to attend the event (tickets are priced at ₹1,911 inclusive of food, drinks, games, and activities), they’re expected to take a personality test, after which they are added to a waiting list. “We organise the events in a way people can truly connect. We use an algorithm to thoughtfully curate groups and maintain diversity and confirm the guest’s participation a day before the event,” says Pandey. It’s also perhaps why the first Sangeet Social event, which included games like antakshari and a mehendi corner, kept things sober. “At our event, people aren’t just dancing at a bar and heading home drunk,” adds Pandey. Guests also walked out with a shagun ka lifaafa (gift envelope) that contained coupons to Barmen, the official drinks partner of the event.

Not just a Gen Z affair

It isn’t just Gen Z flocking to such events for the promise of a good time. Vaid says their fake sangeet events (tickets priced between ₹800 and ₹3,000) have had encouraging participation from people in their 30s as well as early 40s. “Honestly, we all want an excuse to dress up and dance to Bollywood music. We don’t really get that opportunity often, especially in a safe space,” says 29-year-old Delhi-based businessman Anant Gupta, who has attended all of Jumma Ki Raat’s events so far.

A fake sangeet party by Jumma Ki Raat.

Mumbai-based businessman Stanley Lawrence, 55, made a group outing out of Saddi Galli’s Scam Sangeet event with his friends and colleagues. “I was just curious to know what this fake sangeet was all about. But I didn’t feel out of place. Not once did we see any of the kids there look at us and wonder why people of our age were at the party,” he says.

Adds founder Chouri, “One of the slightly older guests we hosted even told us he had more fun at our scam sangeet than he did at his own sangeet years ago.

 Ayaan Vaid, co-founder of Delhi-based Jumma Ki Raat.

But are we trivialising tradition for the sake of a good time on the dance floor? It’s the exact opposite, argues Vaid. “We are in no way disrespecting our culture. If something like this was done abroad, people would’ve praised it for promoting Indian culture,” he says.

For Chouri, who has other wedding-related event ideas in the pipeline already, there’s so much the theme can do to quench the party-goer’s appetite.

But Pandey says that the trend might run its course soon, unless thoughtful curation draws focus. “If you just host events, you won’t be able to sustain it. But if you curate it and add nice themes to it, it will stick around.”

The writer and theatre artist is based between Bengaluru and Delhi.