Hemal Solanki Bhagwat

Director

Mercury Integrated Marketing Services

PLANNING EXPERIENTIAL WEDDINGS

The décor nowadays includes a lot of detailing in table settings, interactive décor and more. Food also is not only about taste, its about the drama with the molecular gastronomy trends. Gifts are personalised to each guest.

BOOMING BUSINESS OF DESTINATION WEDDINGS

Weddings, especially Indian weddings, have a huge impact on tourism. A mid-sized Indian wedding will have at least 300-400 guests. Local industries such as hotels, production services, logistics companies, etc. see a good chunk of business. And that's not all, infact guests that travel for a wedding, most often than not, stay back for a couple of days to enjoy the destination, further adding to tourism sales. Tourism boards of various countries have realised that Indian weddings are the key to promoting these local industries, especially during lean seasons.

THE WEDDING BUSINESS PIE

Well unfortunately, weddings don't work on marketing strategy. The best strategy is to understand and choose your clientele wisely and do a great job, as word of mouth is the only way to grow in this space.

OBTAINING VISAS FOR OUTBOUND DESTINATIONS

Visas are usually one of the most important and primary criteria of choosing a destination. Most families prefer destinations that either do not require visa or provide visa on arrival. But with a good agent and local DMC for visas, this is no longer an issue.

WEDDINGS ON CRUISE

Cruise weddings are gaining a lot of popularity. However, cruise weddings do come with a lot of restrictions such as fire for the ceremony, taking along your own Indian caterer/ Maharaj, size of the cabins, etc.

A WEDDING TO REMEMBER

One of the weddings that was special to us was of a young Mumbai-based couple, who wanted us to plan a post wedding celebration in Kerala. We had arranged a lovely vow ceremony as one of the events, where we put them on a raft in the backwaters with them exchanging vows. This was one of the most cherished of our works with a prospective to-be bride and bridegroom.

Most families prefer destinations that either do not require visa or provide visa on arrival”