A gold jewellery set displayed at Saptapadi that looks heavy but weighs less. (Bishwarup Dutta)

On Day 2 of Anandabazar Patrika Saptapadi, the four-day wedding fair at the Netaji Indoor Stadium last weekend, the Guinea Emporium stall was left with only two sets out of its entire lightweight wedding collection. Nilima De from Guinea Emporium showed off a wedding set, comprising a necklace and a pair of earrings, that “weighs 30 grams but looks like 45 grams”. “We have sold out all of these,” she smiled.

The big fat Indian wedding is feeling the weight of Operation Slim and the bejewelled bride is feeling — but not necessarily looking — lighter.

With gold prices shooting — Rs 1,526 per gram of 22 carat gold on Wednesday against Rs 1,350 a couple of months ago — the buzzword in bridal jewellery is “lightweight”. And jewellers around town have been quick to dish out pieces “that look heavy but weigh less” for the ongoing wedding season.

The demand for look-heavy-weigh-less jewellery is strong, with customers desperate to save on grams of gold. “They are cutting down by five to 10 per cent,” says Dwaipayan Sen, the regional business manager of Tanishq. Adds Prosanto Chandra of PC Chandra Jewellers: “Eight out of 10 families are stressing on lightweight jewellery now.”

Traditional designs continue to rule wedding jewellery so the need of the hour is to modify designs to suit tightening purse strings. “When they ask for a 200-gram design in 80 grams, we have to reduce the size. While the 200-gram design extends till the bust, the 80 grams is going to be half the size,” explains Joydeep Sirkar of B. Sirkar Johuree.

De from Guinea Emporium reveals a design detail: “There is a pattern called katai which gives the pieces a fuller look with less gold. There is huge demand for this design now.”

The number of pieces making up the wedding set has also gone down.

“On an average if people come with a budget of Rs 80,000 to 1 lakh, we can give them one pair of earrings, one pair of gold bangles, a necklace, four pieces of bronze bangles and one pala,” says Anargha Chowdhury from Anjali Jewellers. At Senco Gold, a budget of 1 lakh to 1.5 lakh would get you a necklace, a pair of bangles and earrings.

Almost 45 per cent of Calcuttans are looking at jadau, diamond and other alternatives, points out Siddhartha Sawansukha of Sawansukha Jewellers.

The meltdown has even put costume jewellery on the bridal-buy menu. “People are increasingly buying costume jewellery for weddings,” said Anargha, whose Anjali Jewellers is offering costume, silver and pearl jewellery starting from Rs 200.