Virus takes sheen off weddings in Hyderabad
Fewer guests turn up; many marriages postponed
Hyderabad: There were fewer guests than usual at weddings on Sunday as a result of the Telangana government’s ban on public gatherings to stop the spread of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
The government did allow weddings scheduled till March 31 to go on but requested families to cap the number of guests at 200. The request, however, was ignored in most cases.
Families with weddings scheduled during the next couple of weeks said they can't stop guests from coming. Manoj, whose cousin’s wedding is planned for March 20, said, "We have sent out hundreds of invites already. We can’t tell our guests to not come. Right now, everything is going on as planned. We will see what happens."
He added that unless the function hall refused to serve them, the wedding would go on as usual.
Meanwhile, the wedding planning industry has gone into a tizzy. Multiple event planners said several clients have postponed weddings indefinitely. In fact, a few clients had done so even before the announcement.
Chaitanya Kulkarni of Alankaran Weddings said, “Since this morning, we have received a number of calls asking us to cancel all arrangements.”
Kulkarni said many function halls were returning booking amounts in full, post cancellation, a practice unheard of in the events industry.
Harinath of Vishwa Events said he managed arrangements at a wedding in Alwal on Sunday morning. “Several hundreds attended, but all they spoke about was coronavirus. I think they only came because the government’s announcement came only yesterday night and they were unaware of it. In the next few days, either guest lists will get shorter or the weddings will get cancelled,” he said.
Ameet, a city-based event management professional and a choreographer, said it was likely that weddings scheduled in the next few days would happen as planned, but without any frivolities.
“Services such as sangeet choreographers and live music orchestras are being cancelled. There will be no ‘extras’ at weddings to reduce number of guests,” he said.