• The hows of getting hitched amidst a global crisis 

  Weddings are meant to be the most magical day of one’s life. Most people tend to spend their whole lives planning out their big day, getting every detail to perfection. Unfortunately, with the current situation with the pandemic, weddings are being postponed and cancelled left, right, and centre, leaving most people with feelings of despair and hopelessness. Recently, it was announced that Sri Lanka will be permitted to have weddings with the venue operating at 25% occupancy with a maximum of 150 much to the joy of those working in the wedding industry and brides and grooms to be. Brunch spoke to a few personalities connected to the instru to find out how Covid has changed modern day weddings.    ‘An event planner changed our lives’ – Savindri  Newly-married Savindri talked to us about her pandemic wedding. She got engaged back in August of 2019, and planned to have her wedding in August 2020, but unfortunately, had to postpone due to the pandemic. Her fiance, now husband, lived in Singapore, so they were doing long distance. With the pandemic, the last time she saw him was basically before the pandemic was in February. He was supposed to come in March, but by that time the borders had closed and the whole country had essentially shut down.  Then they planned to make their wedding into two events; the reception and poruwa ceremony. Come early July, the prisons in Sri Lanka had an outbreak of Covid, so her fiance was advised not to fly down as the probability of him getting stuck here was high, and yet again, they had to postpone. “When a wedding is postponed, your rational brain will tell you it’s because of a pandemic, but your emotional brain won’t register that, especially considering that my fiance and I were in two different countries.” Eventually, her husband made it back during the end of November, and while your emotional brain is having a breakdown, you still have to call your photographer, caterer, florists, and others, and co-ordinate, which, Savindri noted, was quite tough. After she was reunited with her fiance, they rescheduled the wedding yet again, to January. There was also the question of whether they were losing money, although Savindri was lucky enough to have worked with some amazing vendors who made sure she got her value for money and if not able to continue, got her refunds. She added that the only money she lost was from printing invitations. Savindri added that once she met her fiance again, she was more excited to make up for lost time, rather than plan out tiresome details of the wedding. In that sense, she is incredibly grateful for her wedding planner Mel Yapa, who ensured she was present at her poruwa ceremony with everything in order, and he also had her reception with 50 people in her uncle’s backyard. “The people in my close family were susceptible to Covid, so after visiting multiple caterers and venues, we decided that having a small ceremony in my uncle's backyard seemed like the safest choice and it went perfectly!” She added that she paid no attention to the wedding that she actually had, because after her engagement, this was the fourth iteration, and she got tired of it after a while. “To put it bluntly, there's only so many times you can look at flower patterns. Having an event planner changed our lives; they ran the whole show and told us not to worry about anything except showing up at our wedding.”  She also informed us that once they hired a wedding planner, many of her family and friends questioned why they hired a wedding planner, but once the wedding was concluded they all agreed that it was the best move in such uncertain times. Having someone to guide you through such a stressful time was a huge burden off Savindri’s back.    ‘I want my clients to still feel magic and romance’ – Mel Yapa  Speaking to wedding planner Mel Yapa, she commented that the lockdowns contributed to the uncertainty of it all, meaning that a lot of weddings were either cancelled or postponed. With everything getting postponed, she added that planners’ jobs are getting repetitive because everything changes everyday.  She stated that although it was announced that weddings can happen with 25% occupancy, as a planner, she is not sure whether she’d wake up the next day to this having changed. So, everyday, they are made to go through the same plan, start from scratch and adjust according to whatever rule was implemented on the day. “The uncertainty affects the client as well. The joy of their big day has now become a chore as with these restrictions you try to fit in everything in the best possible way so it gets done, so the essence of a wedding is taken away as they just want to get it over with,” she added. She also informed us that because of the unpredictability of the situation, her clients call her everyday to check if there have been any updates or changes. There may also be sudden variations in the venue, if for example, the building is made to isolate, so that leads to sudden changes. Then comes the challenge of acquiring a refund or rearranging the date, which means again, everything must be revised, she noted, talking about the challenges that come along with her job in terms of Covid. She commented: “I don't have many positive things to say about it, because we try really hard and it becomes tedious. We’re simply trying to bring a little bit of magic and romance to the client and do a little extra for them so they feel the magic of the day. We try to work with the florists or the venue partners and arrange something special, so they can remember their big day.”    ‘The demand for cheaper prices is unreasonable’ – Thanu  Thanurshan Rajarajan, known famously as “makeup by Thanu”, observed that Covid has drastically changed the wedding industry, adding that in Sri Lankan weddings are a big part of our culture, but the amount of weddings held has significantly reduced post Covid. “Back then, people wanted to get their makeup done and their hair done and they wanted it to look good, now they just wanted to get registered.”  He pointed out that as people are trying to minimise their weddings, his main concern is that even if it's a smaller function, the makeup, the hairstylist, and the designer would be putting in the same effort. Just because the amount of people is less, doesn’t mean that they put in any less effort, but because of Covid, people have begun demanding cheaper prices, which is simply not practical. “They expect us to reduce our costs to the point where it doesn’t even cover the product cost. They try to talk us down, not understanding that makeup counts as a luxury product, so there are very heavy luxury taxes on it that need to be covered.” Obviously, they aren't able to reduce the quality of the workers, nor can they do anything about the tax on products, so Thanu pointed out that it's unfair of clients to demand for cheaper prices. He also commented that what people need to understand is that even though the venue may be smaller, the photographer and the stylists and other people in this sector still have to do their job, and nothing has changed, so the price wouldn’t be affected. Thanu informed us that he is a full-time makeup artist, so he doesn’t have any other jobs and depends entirely on this to earn a living. “We have adjusted our prices accordingly, but for clients to still demand a lower rate is impractical and we cannot cater to such cheap budgets as we have to make a living as well. Right now, it is very hard for us to survive.”  He is hopeful that after the recent announcement, that things will get better and business will come back. “This is the new normal, and we need to adapt and go ahead with our lives as it was before Covid.”    ‘People want to get their weddings done before another wave’ – Umanga Chandrasiri “Our industry has been affected pretty badly,” stated florist and Poru Director Umanga Chandrasiri, adding: “Until recently, all weddings, events, and gatherings were not allowed, but now they have been permitted with strict regulations in place, so there is hope for the industry.”  She also noted that, unlike other events, weddings are something that people plan for years, maybe even all their life, everyone has an idea of what they want their big day to be. In a country like Sri Lanka, which is rooted in culture and tradition, auspicious times are a big deal, so having to postpone a wedding, and then look for another auspicious time, is a difficult task and when this time is not met, people get panicked. In the last few months, there was no work for anyone in the wedding industry, added Chandrasiri.  Chandrasiri not only does weddings but has a retail store as well, she explained to us that she has to lay off a lot of staff to manage and kept a few to work online orders. “But since they said weddings are permitted, we are optimistic that weddings will start back up again and the situation will return back to normal. People seem to want to finish off their wedding before another wave strikes.”    ‘Destination weddings don't seem like they'll happen anytime soon” – Ashane Bernard Wedding Photographer Ashane Bernard commented that one of the biggest challenges he faced during Covid was having to postpone and in some cases cancel. “Postponing dates to August or July, when vendors are already booked, means that everyone may not be free on the same day, so the situation gets complicated. There are instances where I have been the only person out of all the vendors that's not available, when the dates are postponed so I have to cancel.”  Since late, the new inquiries from people who haven't booked, tend to be more budget conscious: “As soon as we send in our price rates, more often than not we don't hear back from them. Other photographers, in order to make up for lost time, significantly reduce their pricing, so we end up losing out on certain weddings because of it.”  He also commented that a lot of destination weddings, which is a big part of what he does, doesn't look like it's going to happen anytime soon, so many have cancelled. He also noted that previously, he used to get at least one overseas wedding a year, and now that is impossible. Obviously, there is the whole risk of actually getting infected by Covid, which we tend to ignore because we need to get work done.  “In the next three months, it's looking good, but even that is uncertain with all the government restrictions that keep changing all the time.”