Is the second wave of Covid-19 disrupting the wedding season in Vizag? In the past few weeks, there has been a meteoric rise in the number of Covid-19 cases reported in the city, so much that partial lockdown had to be imposed. The situation was the same last year too when the pandemic affected countless weddings, which had to either be postponed or the number of guests attending the wedding had to be limited.
The weddings which were planned post-lockdown last year somehow managed to take place with only family members and close relatives. But now, the situation has become even worse, such that the people who planned their weddings this season decided to postpone rather than taking any risks, while only very few are planning to go ahead with limited guests.
The pandemic this year has made people in Vizag completely ignore the wedding season and also stopped them from having birthday parties, functions in a grand manner and arranging a photographer too. As per the State Government guidelines, families can perform weddings with a limited number of only 20 guests while following Covid-19 protocols. People who had finalised their wedding dates for May 2021 did not expect that the pandemic situation in Vizag would turn worse and are now worried about how to go ahead with their wedding plans. From booking wedding halls to paying advance for catering, many families who have weddings planned in May decided to go ahead with limited guests. “Be it an in-house or a wedding hall, we are going ahead with the wedding as per our plan in May. Postponing the wedding doesn’t seem to be a good idea, so, we decided to do it with not more than 20 guests, as per the government guidelines. Also, we told everyone who is attending the wedding to isolate themselves for a week after the wedding so as to avoid any unforeseen contraction of the virus, if any,” said Keerthi, who has her wedding this month.
But Krishna Murthy from Hyderabad has decided to postpone his daughter’s wedding which was supposed to happen in Vizag this month. “I had initially decided to go ahead with the wedding but as we have elderly people at home, family members have advised us to postpone the wedding till August, when the situation might come to normal. However, we do not know whether we would get at least half the advance paid for the wedding arrangements back,” said Murthy.
Meanwhile, the rise in Covid-19 cases and the eventual cancellation of weddings and other functions has been a huge hit on wedding photographers, banquet halls, catering services who are at a loss. Most of the photographers in Vizag who mostly depend on the wedding season as their big business are at loss. “Last year, we had to face a similar situation but we took all precautions, wearing masks and maintaining social distance while clicking photos. But this year, those families who had planned all wedding arrangements six months before are now in a dilemma on whether to go ahead or not. Though we couldn’t capture their weddings in a grand way, a few families requested us to come home and take a few photos of the small in-house weddings. In such cases, we had to reduce the package rates as they are not ready for post-wedding or outdoor shoots”, said Surya, a wedding photographer in Vizag.
Another wedding photographer, S Apuroopa Reddy of Pretty Pixels in Vizag, was booked for three weddings this month but all of them got cancelled. While the advance taken is nonrefundable as per their company policy, understanding the prevailing situation, she returned the advance cutting down a 15 percent share. “Though it is a loss for us, human life is more important. For us, all three weddings are of the bride/groom who has to come from other countries which is impossible. The situation is so bad that even we did not want to attend the weddings but as we have locked the team of photographers for the cancelled weddings, we had to pay back their advance,” said S Apuroopa Reddy.
Various catering services in Vizag find themselves in a similar jam this wedding season, as they also got a call about their wedding order being cancelled. “They have decided to postpone or go for home-cooked food. A majority of the wedding orders which we got in Vizag got cancelled and we also paid them back their advance. We heard that many decided to go for in-house weddings with 20 members, cooking food at home itself”, said Vasu, from a catering service in Murali Nagar.
As these are unprecedented circumstances that we are living in, all we can do is adjust to the best of our capabilities and hope for this pandemic to go away quickly. For the time being though, it seems like we are looking at another lacklustre wedding season in Vizag.
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