Corona crashes wedding dreams, brings industry down to its knees
About 1.5 lakh weddings cancelled or deferred in UP, including around 2,500 in Lucknow alone, say industry sources
LUCKNOW: If, yes if, these were normal times we would be encountering several baraats on the streets with baraatis gyrating to the tunes of ‘aaj mere yaar ki shaadi hai’ and other peppy numbers.
But alas! That’s not to be -- all because of the lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak that has broken the back of the marriage industry and seriously hassled the would-be brides and grooms’ families.
The current wedding season started in mid-March and will continue till June-end but with the current situation, in relation to the virus, the outlook for the wedding industry looks bleak.
An uninvited guest, the deadly Covid-19 has played spoilsport on the current wedding season casting a gloom on thousands of families that had planned grand weddings and receptions and also cruelly crushing the to-be-married couples’ honeymoon dreams.
Those who have a wedding in their family are having very difficult choices to make these days. Some have already cancelled their bookings and some have rescheduled dates for November-December while a few others, who have fixed dates for May-June, are keeping their fingers crossed waiting for the situation to become normal by then.
“Our dilemma is that we have already made non-refundable advance payments to the resort, caterer etc. If we pay the rest of the amount, we run the risk of losing all the money and if we do not pay and reschedule the date, we may not get the venue of our choice,” said RP Mishra, who has booked a famous resort in Vrindavan for his daughter’s wedding in the first week of June.
WEDDING INDUSTRY HIT HARD
Like Mishra, many others face the same dilemma these days. But more than them, coronavirus has stung those running the wedding industry hard since their clients are cancelling bookings and demanding refund of advance.
“This wedding season, which started from March, has been dry for us so far because weddings and other auspicious events have stopped taking place since mid-April and clients have cancelled bookings or rescheduled dates for winters,” said Naveen Agrawal of Meerut and vice-president of All-India Tent Dealers’ Welfare Organisation.
He said cancellation or postponement of weddings and other events has hit everyone — tent traders, caterers, hotels, guesthouses, florists, wedding planners, travel agents and many others in the wedding industry very hard.
“About 1.5 lakh weddings must have been cancelled or deferred in UP,” said UP Tent Traders’ Association vice-president Vijay Kumar, adding that: “Around 2,500 marriages slotted between April 1 and June 30 have been deferred or cancelled in Lucknow alone.”
Kumar said the business loss was impossible to be compensated even if the booking dates were shifted. “This is because many of the clients will now scale down receptions and related events,” he pointed out.
Jameel Shamsi, a famous wedding decorator in Lucknow, said he had 50 bookings between April 15 and June 25 and all of them had been cancelled. “One booking for wedding that was to take place at the Badminton Academy this month has been rescheduled for November-end,” he said.
Jasminder Singh, director of Chancellor Club in Ashiana, said, “Yes people are requesting cancellation or postponement of their bookings for marriages, ‘tilak’, ‘bariksha’, engagement ceremonies etc.”
Surendra Sharma, president of Lucknow Hotel and Restaurants Association, added: “There are around 900 hotels and marriage lawns in the city and almost all of them have reported cancellations of events.”
LOOKING FOR GOVT HELP
The current wedding season started in March and will continue till June end and will again begin again in November after a lull of four months.
Those in the wedding industry are the ‘A’ class traders like fivestar hotels and the small ones like band parties or those providing services like fireworks, DJs, ‘baggi-ghori’ and the likes, and they all, like always, were anxiously looking forward to the wedding season for business to look up.
“This year coronavirus shortcircuited the wedding season before it could even take off, creating problems for the people in wedding industry as well as the clients,” Shamsi regretted.
“Now our problem is that clients are demanding refund of booking amount and we have spent the money on meeting our expenses, including staff’s salary etc.
The industry is now looking forward to the government to come to their rescue by announcing some relief package for them. “The government may not treat wedding industry as an industry in the strict sense. But nobody can deny the fact that this provided livelihood to lacks of people in the state,” said Naveen Agrawal. He demanded that the government allow GST and similar other concessions to the wedding industry. “The government must also think of the poor people like waiters, band players, petromax-bearers, baggi-pullers etc who depend on seasonal weddings for livelihood,” added Vijay Kumar.
› Our dilemma is that we have already made non-refundable advance payments to the resort, caterer etc. If we pay the rest of the amount, we run the risk of losing all the money RP MISHRA, who had booked a famous resort
› About 1.5 lakh weddings must have been cancelled or deferred in UP. Around 2,500 marriages slotted between April 1 and June 30 have been deferred or cancelled in Lucknow alone VIJAY KUMAR, UP Tent Traders’ Association vice-president
› Yes people are requesting cancellation or postponement of their bookings for marriages, ‘tilak’, ‘bariksha’, engagement ceremonies etc JASMINDER SINGH, director of Chancellor Club in Ashiana