Bhubaneswar: In the wake of necessary social distancing and limited public gatherings, grand marriage plans have gone awry. However, wedding planners in the city here have now come up with unique packages that will manage your weddings keeping in mind the COVID-19 regulations.
With ‘Thermal Screening for Guests’, ‘Mandatory Hand Washing Stations’, ‘Hand Sanitizers’ and ‘Special N95 Masks’ for guests, the packages are available between Rs. 90,000 to Rs. 1 lakh. Apart from providing the facilities in the planned budget, the planners will also take responsibility of ensuring that all government protocols are followed.
“It has been tough to organise a weeding during these times. My daughter was initially to be wed April 23 but the lockdown was enforced. We consulted our astrologer who gave us June 28th as the auspicious date. However, that day is a Sunday which now coincides with government’s weekend lockdown. We are now looking for a new date and have taken one of these packages as I can’t delay the plans further while also following government’s norm,” said Priyarnajan Behera.
As per the Odia calendar, while there are only 17 days for wedding in June, only six are available during the month of July. These rare auspicious dates available in between of the end of summer and beginning of rainy season have been tight spots for booking amidst hotels allowing restricted social gatherings.
However, despite offering the unique packages, wedding planners mentioned making meager profits working with limited resources. “In a normal day, an average package would cost Rs. 4 lakhs depending on customer’s budget. We would make a profit between Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 20,000 but these packages would only fetch Rs. 5000 to Rs. 7,000. Besides, if the customer doesn’t choose to follow government norms, we too may be liable for flouting the regulations,” said Biswajit Mohanty, manager at Dream Weddings here.
Moreover, with the government allowing only few locations for venues and restrictions of only 50 people in wedding most of the bookings are reported to be postponed later. “With weddings being a mega affair in India, biggest challenge for the customers is to limit their guests and hence many have shifted their booking to later marriage months of December this year or January-February next year,” he added.
Aviral Mishra, OP