Deshanee Reception Hall marks a decade of making wedding dreams come true

Planning a wedding can be a time-consuming and daunting task, especially if you don’t have the right contacts and resources. One of the biggest tasks when it comes to planning a wedding is selecting a venue that suits your budget, provides superior service, caters exceptional meals and is conveniently located.

Combining all these factors, Deshanee Reception Hall in Ratnapura has for more than a decade succeeded in making the wedding dreams of thousands of couples come true. One of the largest reception halls in Sri Lanka’s gem country, Deshanee was an accidental brainchild of Seetha Rathnayake, the wife of a successful gem merchant.

“After my three children had grown and finished their schooling, they moved overseas for further studies and I found myself with a lot of time on my hands. This also meant that I could move back to our hometown in Ratnapura instead of staying in Colombo. It was at this time that many people from our area would talk to me about the lack of a good quality reception hall for weddings and other functions. We had an empty building at the time, which my husband then helped me to convert into a modern reception hall. We named it after our eldest daughter and that’s how it all started,” said Deshanee’s founder.

In commemoration of the reception hall’s 10th anniversary, Deshanee is bringing together other weddingrelated supplier for the largest wedding show in Ratnapura to be held on February 24, 2019. The show will feature more than 30 florists, beauticians, photographers and videographers, dress designers, traditional attire suppliers and so much more. The wedding exhibition is organised free of charge by Deshanee with no stall charges rendered to stall holders or an entrance ticket charged from audiences.

“Most of the vendors who will be featured at the wedding fair started off as small home businesses with me 10 years ago. This is my way of giving back to them for supporting me throughout the years. We have not even charged them for advertising as I want to highlight them,” Rathnayake added.

The exhibition will be held from 9:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. and they hope to continue this as an annual event. Ten chosen couples who attend the wedding fair will receive discounts when booking Deshanee Reception Hall for their weddings while other vendors will also have attractive offers for lucky couples.