Trousseau? Check. Venue? Check. Caterer? Check. Photographer? Check. Makeup artist? Check. Wedding date? Postponed. The effort and number of hours devoted to wedding planning and making endless lists of arrangements has gone down the drain for many, pushing them to reschedule grand celebrations. But will Indian weddings live up to the catchphrase of being fat and big in the post-coronavirus world?
Experts from the wedding business new wedding trends for the post-corona era and believe that intimate weddings will be the way to go forward . It will involve creating meaningful and engaging experiences for guests on priority along with precautionary measures in check. Some also sense that the lockdown period has given adequate time to couples as well as wedding vendors to rethink the idea of week-long wedding celebrations, and go low-key.
Bombay based wedding planner, Aanchal Agarwal Bagaria, co-founder, The Wedding Soul expects no big weddings and large gatherings at least for the next 6 months after the lockdown is completely removed. She foresees an all time low in couples opting for destination weddings. She says, “A lot of them will now prefer weddings in their home towns where they have majority of the family members, reason being travelling via railways or air. Another important aspect to be considered will be trimming the guest list to 50-100 attendees.”
Sharing the similar thought is another wedding planner, Kaveri Vij of Designer Events Inc. who says, “Many NRIs choose India as the wedding destination, however this will see a drastic decline.” Apart from this, she believes, “There will be shorter timelines for wedding planning. They would reduce from 6-8 months to 2-3 months or even lesser because couples would want to get married as soon as possible.” Adding further, she states, “There might be a certificate of health and safety for venues to ensure that it falls under the safety guidelines like how you have food safety certificates. Sanitisation of venues will be a very big factor before finalising a venue. We predict this to be an increased cost unless it’s put out as a rule by the government.”
To this, Vij’s business partner and wedding planner, Akshay Chopra shares, “Immunity boosting food section might become a must choice to have in a buffet spread just like a Jain food section. Plus, we will definitely see a decrease in the average spend on weddings at least for next two years and buyers will have a greater bargaining power.”
However, weddings will still be beautiful but over-the-top spending will be the need of the hour predicts, Sanna Vohra, founder and CEO of The Wedding Brigade, an online Indian wedding platform.
Vohra also looks forward to digital ways of wedding planning. She says, “As couples might avoid venturing out to purchase 100 things, they want would want to order things directly at the doorstep or shop online or do vendor bookings online.” Adding further, she says, “There will be certain amount of virtualisation and broadcasting of the wedding especially for older age-group guests and those who live abroad.” Vohra also expects to see a surge in wedding insurance. She states, “It is not that popular but now so many weddings have been delayed due to Covid-19 and couples may have lost money, so wedding insurance might increase in popularity.”
