Aurangabad, Jan 5:
The new covid related restrictions issued by the state government have put the owners of wedding halls and lawns in a fix in the district. Apart from the concern of ensuring every guest at the wedding ceremony is fully vaccinated, the owners will also have to ensure that the wedding halls are empty by 9 pm.
There are close to 350 wedding halls and lawns spread all over the district. Suraj Panchal, secretary of the wedding halls and lawns association, said, the new restrictions put in place to stem the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron strain has crushed the hopes of wedding hall owners, planners and our clients. Most of the wedding season begins from January 18 and it will continue till May-end. As of now, the concern among many wedding hall owners is to call up the parties, who have booked the halls and inform them about the new guidelines issued by the government. Some parties ask us to return the booking amount as they do not like to conduct weddings with only 50 guests. Many owners said that the restrictions would hit them financially as well.
Decorators, photographers badly hit
With the restrictions in place, many parties opted to conduct the weddings in farm houses or smaller locations. When there are few guests, the wedding parties do not spend on decoration or opt for bigger catering services. Hence the business of decorators and catering services is also badly hit, said Upendra Bhilare, a decorator of Gulmandi area. Wedding photographer Aditya Mahalkar said “ It’s a less-than ideal scenario when a wedding is reduced to only 50. Weddings are all about the celebration, and we can’t just ignore that fact. We hope that curbs won’t be tightened further."