Demand for wedding related services spikes

NEW DELHI: After a lull in weddings business owing to the pandemic, the marriage parties are back with a bang. Providers of wedding-related services are seeing a surge in demand for bookings and many are charging rates higher than what they did in 2019.

Those who are planning to tie the knot in the coming quarter will have to incur higher costs, said research by wedding planning website WedMeGood.com.

The company's analysis of wedding services from 2019 to 2021 found that different categories of vendors have become more expensive, with the exception of a few. Many services are more in demand too, like outdoor venues.

Last year, as marriage plans were cancelled across the country, wedding planners had to scale down their operations. Vendors like planners, caterers, wedding venues, caterers, etc., had to restructure their operations to cater to a smaller gathering or virtual celebrations, said Mehak Sagar, co-founder, WedMeGood.com.

But with weddings back in full swing, the e-invites category, for instance, as compared to 2019, is booming. The pandemic has helped with an increase in demand shift for e-invites/digital invitations post-pandemic and almost 50-60% of the wedding cards market has witnessed a shift in focus towards digital cards. The company said spending towards e-invites has also increased, consequently. The demand for physical invitations has seen a decline resulting in decreased service charges in that category.

Some of the highest increases this year have been in the demand for outdoor venues. While there aren't covid restrictions in many places, the fear of the virus persists and the platform said it has witnessed close to a 25% increase in demand for outdoor venues on its site.

Venues like hotels, which also take care of safety precautions, have also seen a increase in demand. Pricing data on its website for venues has not undergone much change as vendors charge per plate.

But destination weddings have turned into in-resident weddings, where instead of flying the family to an outside location, a luxury property at a drivable distance is booked and everyone can stay there, which has given a boost to local hotels and resorts.

"The Indian wedding market is estimated at a whopping $40 billion. We are seeing costs go up and down based on different categories. For some categories, the pandemic hasn’t changed the nature of what they do. For instance, a makeup artist still has to put in the same effort to get a bride ready, in fact, now has to accommodate for sanitisation, costs of face shields and RT-PCR tests as well and is seeing increased costs," said Sagar.

As per its data, the company has observed that makeup artists' service costs have increased by 15% in comparison to 2019.

Photographers have seen an increase of about 8% as compared to 2019, the company said, Photographers' scale of operations had reduced in 2020 and to recover some of these losses, they have increased their service charges this year.

Decorators have been drastically affected by the 'scaled down' weddings, and are now charging about 12% less than what they used to as compared to 2019.

Videographers have not seen a significant drop in pricing but an approximately 2% reduction in service cost. "As people opt for more intimate affairs the amount spent here has reduced. In general, wedding budgets haven’t fluctuated as much but the places where people spend money has seen a slight shift. From fancy boxes and invitations to custom video e-cards, from lavish over-the-top decor to more intimate experiences and curated dinners for their guest list," Sagar added.