Hyderabad: After being severely hit by COVID-19 restrictions, the marriage industry is gearing to normalcy gradually with the return of the city’s grandiose style weddings. From florists and caterers to event-management companies, all have tightened their seatbelts to bring the big fat weddings back again in Hyderabad.
The wedding business was among the worst hit after the outbreak of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which brought down the big fat weddings to very simple ones. Now that COVID-19 restrictions have eased, many are opting for grand weddings again—with band, baaja and baraat.
When surveyed, it was bought to notice that the functions halls which were deserted until early September are now getting booked out. A city-based banquet hall management said that their business is gradually recovering, but they fear the imposition of a second lockdown.
“From March to early October, I had no bookings. However, in mid-October and November, we are getting requests for bookings twice a week. This is still a recovery, but last year we would get orders at least five times a week,” said the manager at Heena Gardens, Mehdipatnam.
The same was reiterated by SS Conventions’ Manager, who is currently assuring proper COVID-19 measures for bookings. “We earlier would have orders for almost every day, now that COVID-19 is at its peak, we receive a maximum of two bookings per week. Bigger halls are not preferred as the number of guests is restricted.”
During the lockdown, several families who refused to wait for the normalcy to return held low-key functions with limited guests within households. But, a few postponed in the hope that celebrations could be large-scale and that the pandemic would peter out by October-November. “We have postponed our child’s wedding for two reasons: Firstly, as a preventive measure to keep the elders in home safe and secondly, we wished a big wedding for him,” said a family.
One of the wedding invitees said, “Earlier we were also scared of the pandemic and now that everything seems to be normal, we decided to hold a wedding function.” The marriage had about 600 guests and was held in Malakpet’s function hall.
Adding to it, are hundreds of couples tying nuptials this season, particularly amongst the Muslim community in the month of Rabbi-ul-Awwal (Islamic month) which began in the end of October. In the Hindu community too, several couples are engaged to be wedded after Diwali.
Wedding attendees appear to be negligent about COVID-19 precautions
Despite several warnings both from the national and international health organizations over the second COVID-19 wave, it witnessed that both the invitees and attendees are celebrating neglecting COVID precautions including masks and sanitizers.
Most of the families are also trying to wind up the events at the earliest with rumors of the second wave of COVID-19 infections and another lockdown on the rise.