The business of getting married
With the major wedding season in Goa almost upon us, Café looks at the trend of getting married in Goa, and all that it entails from a planner’s viewpoint

When Animesh Jansen and Anushka Raman, residents of Oman, expressed their desire
to get married in Goa, a destination wedding was what they wanted. They asked
around in Oman and they were instructed to check with wedding planners in Goa
to help them. And that’s what they did.
The marriage ceremony, and the function that follows, are very
important markers of a life that will be lived together. The couple, and family
and friends will look back at the day with memories that will be tinged with
joy and relief that it all went well. Relief is usually the sentiment expressed
by the family and friends who have been involved in ensuring the evening passed
off smoothly. Goa has emerged as an important destination for domestic and NRI
weddings over the last couple of years. This has meant that several wedding
planners in the state have had to improve their expertise or ‘up their game’.
The number of wedding planners increased, some started by staff who exited
existing companies or by those who came into the state on learning of the
riches to be made. The business, however, remains very competitive and is
expected to get even more so in the years ahead.
Shyam Haridas of Lucros Event Management says business was
always very competitive and it was important to present innovative themes.
Shyam says “Clients would like a theme for the mehendi, sangeet, mehfil. They
would like to have alternatives for each of these segments. Some would like a
sunset weddings others midnight pheras. The Marwaris always prefer it at
midnight”.
Ever since the domestic market discovered the pleasure of saying
ones vows on the beaches of Goa, the skill levels of Goan wedding planners have
improved drastically. Many have no problem looking beyond the shores of Goa to
hire services of entertainers or expertise for designing sets. Lyndon Alves of
Sunset Gateways hired the services of Sumant Jaikrishnan, considered the best
wedding theme designer for a wedding in the state. Lyndon says “Yes, it was for
the wedding of an industrialist in the state and yes, the people of Goa will
spend money when it is needed”. He goes on to say that Goa is the only place in
the country where it was possible to get a large number of rooms in the same
property. It is also possible to combine two properties since distances are not
large. Goa, he says, fits into the budget of the aspiring middle class who want
to show the world, they have made it. Themes are important, he says, for all
these weddings and couples as well as their families are open to ideas, some of
which are certainly out of the box. Lyndon says budgets for such weddings
usually are between Rs. 12 to 30 lakhs. Goa will continue to remain a great
venue and will get even bigger, in the years to come. This, however, will
depend on sorting out the 10 o’clock deadline of outdoor parties. He says
wedding planners in the state usually have to design two sets one for an
outdoor party and another indoor after 10 when the party can continue with
music.
Jayant Varma of Forever weddings says with a great deal of
interest in Goa as a wedding destination, it has resulted in an increase in the
number of wedding planners. This means, hard negotiations are the order of the
day. Themes are getting even more interesting, but budgets are in most cases
decreasing due to hard negotiating. Clients are coming in from locations as
diverse as Dubai, Singapore, Zambia, UK, and most of them are of Indian
descent. Many of the clients he says have conducted research and have someone
who has some experience in the past, interacting with wedding planners. A large
number of the big wedding planners in the state, he says only organise weddings
for domestics or NRI’s and will not touch local weddings, because the budgets
are not large enough.
Tastes
and a willingness to experiment have certainly increased, but budgets remained
tight irrespective of nationality and this at times places a strain. However,
they all agree that there is way too much business to complain. It is not
unusual for a mid-size wedding planning company to help organise around 45 to
50 weddings in a three month season. With each wedding conservatively spending
Rs. 20 lakhs, it can be only imagined what the profit margins are for these
wedding planners. However, as a wedding planner who did not want to come on
record says, “Yes, the money is good but what is heartening is that one in five
clients will listen to you and trust you. And when at the end of the evening,
they thank you with tears in their eyes, it makes up for everything.” Amen to
that.
- | 27 Oct, 2017, 05:07AM
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