Confused, unsure and now panicky. This is how Indian families who had weddings planned for January 2022 are feeling, thanks to the rising cases of COVID-19, the new variant Omicron and COVID-related restrictions.
Wedding woes
"The biggest loss is the trauma and panic that is being caused to families," Sheena Seth, Eventador Productions, a wedding planning company, told Moneycontrol.
Even for the Indian wedding sector, redoing the whole thing over and over again since 2020 has been a setback, she said. In between, it had started to heal.
Vikaas Gutgutia, founder and managing director of gifting company Ferns N Petals (FnP), said that January is a missed opportunity for the wedding industry. A KPMG report estimates the Indian wedding market to be worth $50 billion.
"January-February is a good season for us and with November-December of last year looking good, we were pinning our hopes on the first two months of 2022 to make up for the losses we had incurred in the last two years. Then came Omicron, and January is washed out," he said.
Talking about the year gone by, Gutgutia said that in the last two months of 2021, the business had reached 80 percent of pre-COVID levels. "There was strong recovery. We were expecting faster momentum this year and estimated 50 percent higher business than the pre-pandemic level in 2022. However, 10 percent of the business we had expected this year is wiped off. Some may be adjusted in the coming months but the beginning is disheartening."
Wedding planner Seth, who has a packed calendar this year, is seeing both cancellations and postponements.
“Cancellations are 60-70 percent whereas postponements are 30-40 percent. A few families want to hold weddings even if they have to change dates. Some families are on track with their plans, even if they have to do home weddings. So, the latter is a big loss to us (wedding planners)," she said.
She added that families are confused and so are wedding planners.
"In Delhi, 20 people are allowed for a wedding, whereas in Gurugram, 100 people are allowed. If Delhi closes borders, there is no way guests can go to Gurugram. Restrictions are playing a major role in deciding what is being planned. We ourselves don't know how things are going to pan out. So we have no idea what to tell clients. There are weddings planned in Gurugram but I am not sure if they will happen on the scheduled dates in February," said Seth.
Seeing summer as good wedding season
While January has turned out to be a big blow for the wedding industry, players are betting big on the summer wedding season of 2022.
"January-February period is the second leg of the winter wedding season, which is a big contributor to overall business. In case the current situation continues till February, there is a clear possibility that weddings will get shifted," says Anam Zubair, Associate Director of Marketing, WeddingWire India, a part of The Knot Worldwide, a global wedding planning company.
"In 2022, overall, there are 50 mahurat (auspicious) dates. January and February had 10 such dates. May is very heavy with 11 mahurat days and there are nine days in June. People will have a lot of flexibility," she said.
Even for Seth, the summer wedding season will be a big opportunity, and April is a jam-packed month for her.
Gutgutia, who is also betting big on the summer season, said that the good wedding season will start from April and will last till July. He added that the rising trend of Indian families moving away from auspicious days to days of convenience will let some weddings happen in the off-season too.
Adding to this, Zubair said, "One trend that we saw picking up in the last two years is that people are open to dates that are over the weekends and holidays to have a bigger celebration. In the beginning of 2020, we started recommending additional dates for weddings. When we look at that, we have 26 possible additional wedding days for this year. Overall, we were looking at 76 days."
She said that demand will shift from the first quarter (of calendar year 2022) to Q2. "In May, we are expecting many weddings. But all depends on January because if people are not confident, they might shift it to the latter half (second) of the year."
