Weddings are waiting

Two wedding experts share their views on how they think the wedding segment will pan out over the next months.

Hazel Jain

Will there be smaller weddings with bigger price tags going forward? It’s too soon to tell say two wedding experts. But they share one thought – weddings will happen no matter what and families are only waiting for the lockdowns to ease.

Jitendra Kejriwal, CEO of Arika Tour & Travels and the recently-elected IATO Maharashtra Chapter Chairman for the term 2021-23, has been in this segment for decades. He says, “Weddings have been happening right now albeit with only 25-30 people. So the total expenditure has gone down a lot forcibly. But we are hoping that by July 15, 2021 – by which date most people would have taken the first dose of the vaccine – things will start to ease up. And by November-December, we can expect the wedding season to kick in. We are expecting this season to be very good. Weddings will be more or less local for now with nearby destinations and hotels being popular. But by December we are expecting nearby states like Kerala, Rajasthan and Goa to pick up.”

His company has been getting inquiries for 150-160 room wedding parties. “We do expect last minute bookings for December as the situation is volatile. The booking time could be reduced to 20-25 days by families. In fact, even hotels aren’t taking bookings beyond 15 days as they know things might change quickly,” Kejriwal adds.

On the other hand, Rajeev Jain, Director, Rashi Entertainment, says that his clients are still waiting and watching. “April 2021 was one of the biggest seasons for weddings in India. But all of them were cancelled because of the lockdown. So 80% of the weddings are now waiting to happen in July 2021. But families are waiting to see how the situation is before they confirm. They are hoping that the lockdown will ease up soon,” he says.

Jain says the wedding industry is very hopeful since the number of cases has gone down which could mean governments permitting a gathering of 100-200 people. He has written to the CM of Delhi to understand the situation.

“People aren’t planning much in advance except for the super auspicious dates coming up. But hotels are asking crazy amounts of money which nobody can think of also: `75,000 only for rooms which is unrealistic! So the situation right now in the market is very tricky. I am hoping November-December will be a very heavy season for India for weddings as long as the third wave does not happen,” Jain shares. He adds that almost 70 per cent of the industry is closed right now since people could not sustain this kind of pressure after the second wave.“People will think twice before spending on weddings now because of the situation,” Jain adds.