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Wedding halls in Pune booked, but owners fail to make profits; couples prefer destination events
At least 80 weddings have been planned across wedding halls in the city, however, lawn owners are not happy as their business has not been lucrative with limited people
Its the last month of the year locked down by the Covid-19 pandemic, however, the virus has not been able to spoil the spirit of weddings in the city. With at least 35 muhurats or auspicious dates listed for weddings this month, couples and wedding planners are prepping up to cash in this opportunity.
At least 80 weddings have been planned across wedding halls in the city, however, lawn owners are not happy as their business has not been lucrative with limited people. To stop the spread of the Sars-Cov-2 virus which causes the Covid-19 infection, various guidelines have been put in place including limited number of invitees and wedding planners have to provide safety measures like masks, gloves, sanitisation, among other things.
The wedding planners are leaving no stone unturned to make it memorable for families which includes following Covid-19 protocols, maintaining social distancing, safety and hygiene along with screening it live for those who couldn’t join the event. Shreet Ghatpande and Dhanashree Sant, who will be tying the knot on December 24, are excited, but also find it difficult to curtail the list of invitees. “The only issue we faced while planning our wedding was curtailing the guest list,” said Shreet Deshpande, who is an architect.
“Many of the weddings are the ones which had been postponed due to the lockdown and instead of waiting for the vaccine, they simply want to go ahead and get married,” said Mandar Desai, owner of two wedding halls on Karve road. He has his halls booked until January 2021 and people are still coming forward to book it in advance for the next few months. “We are following all the protocols laid down by the government and are making sure that people follow it,” he added.
Pratik Jaywant Ghaisas got married on December 10. “We were to get married in May, but the wedding was postponed due to the lockdown, then when the unlock happened, we all thought of going ahead and getting married. Initially, I thought of getting a registered marriage done, but then my parents felt that since the opportunity was provided by the government, we could get married according to Vedic rituals following all Covid-19 protocols. We always wanted a small wedding and unknowingly Covid-19 has been a blessing for us, so we had to curtail the invites,” said Pratik, a travel enthusiast and tour arranger. “It was also difficult to decide how to invite and whom to invite, so instead we did a Facebook live for those who couldn’t join us,” he added.
Shreyas Banquets ring in with tunes of shehnai as a wedding continues with 50 invitees on Thursday. “The bookings have started picking up now that the unlock has started. However, people are keen to have the capacity of 50 people be increased as 50 is a very small number for Indian functions. We are very strict about following the protocols. We tell the hosts about maintaining the numbers and also tell them to ask all their guests to wear masks. We sanitise the common surfaces frequently and conduct thermal checks of all the guests while all servers and staff members also follow the guidelines and wear masks, gloves and shields all the time,” said Radhika Chitale, managing the banquets.
An average wedding package with food costs Rs 30,000 for 50 people and Chitale says that it is not possible to reduce the amount as they incur same costs to upkeep the hall and electricity.
Kishore Sarpotdar, of Poona Guest House is busy. He caters to not just six wedding halls, but also has additional orders for Mehendi, Sangeet and other days pre-and post wedding ceremonies. “April and May 2021 are going to be very busy with as many 80 muhurats are on the calendar. Even though, the pandemic is still around, we are busy. The business is only to helping us break even as there is no profit catering for 50 people.”
Many of the couples are also looking at destination weddings near Pune, Dhepe Wada and Fort Jadhavgadh which has been booked for the entire month for weddings.
Sayali Ponkshe, an environmentalist preferred a destination wedding and said, “Due to Covid-19, we decided to opt for a very closed knit wedding of 50 people and that is when Dhepe Wada became a very prominent option. It was nearby, was built in nature and since I was getting married in another caste, we thought it would be a great opportunity to relive my culture one last time in the fullest way possible,” said Sayali.
“We are a luxury wedding destination and enquiries have been great and are coming in constantly where families are now preferring to book the entire property for themselves. All Covid-19 guidelines are in place and followed sincerely by both the staff and the guests as they don’t want their functions to suffer. Having huge lawns and banquets has been a boon for us,” said Biswajit Biswas, general manager, Fort Jadhavgadh.
Nitin Dhepe, owner Dhepe Wada, said, “A lot of people have preferred Dhepe Wada this year and we are full on many days till March 2021. People want to enjoy their wedding here in the traditional format while following all Covid-19 precautions. Unfortunately many bookings which had been made by overseas guest got cancelled/ postponed due to Covid-19.”
Speaking about finances, he added that even though it is the wedding season, the halls are not making enough to even tide over the months they had to keep their business shut.
According to Radhika Chitale, they had kept the margins less and have tailored the packages to suit 50 people. “It is hardly 10% of the revenue that we earn. Last year, in November-December, we would ideally host 50 weddings catering to 1,000 to 2,000 people unlike now, which are around 30 weddings in November-December with only 50 guests.”
