New trends to change the face of big, fat Indian weddings

Ambika Gupta, founder/ creative head of The A-Cube Project and House of A-Cube says, “Until the vaccines are introduced, intimate weddings will be the next trend. And those couples who don’t want to compromise with their dream wedding, they can postpone to 2021. Because things will settle down by then. Venues which will have strict sanitation protocols and food safety measures will become preferred venues by default. Sanitising will become a standard procedure as far as hotels and weddings are concerned. Home weddings will become an emerging trend for those who have spacious houses and it can be done in a grand manner.”

Ambika who has planned and designed a fair amount of weddings across the country opines that an entrepreneur should be prepared for both good and bad times and re-strategise. “As entrepreneurs, we constantly need to accept, adjust and evolve. We are fortunate that the lockdown has happened during a time where many months fall under the offseason, compared to the rest of the world. Wedding planners can re-assess their business during this period. And enhance areas which they usually can’t during normal working days and peak season. This is a tough time for all wedding planners and caterers, but with every problem comes a solution and this too shall pass. Whatever loss you may be incurring, it can be recovered by the end of this year. So let’s stay positive,” she says.

We also witnessed a couple of ‘virtual weddings’ during the month of March and April. Meera Ravi of The Bridal March & Co observes that a lot of virtual weddings will be happening in the future and it will be the new wedding trend.

“The lockdown period has given us a lot of time to think about how to plan a wedding in the future. Unlike before, people are going to spend less on weddings because of the economic crisis. I feel there are two ways of going about it. Firstly, some will continue to host weddings in a lavish manner because they would have saved for it. Secondly, gatherings will become smaller but the quality of the celebrations will become better. If the number of guests is being cut down, they can focus on things like décor, food, etc,” says Meera. 

Prethee Martina, a surgeon from Puducherry, had to cancel her engagement that was supposed to happen in April. “But as planned earlier, we will be going ahead with the wedding in August. There won’t be any change in the date. But instead of a big wedding, we have decided to host a small wedding with only family members and close friends,” says Prethee.