The thing with Indian weddings is that they continue to be ‘bigger’ and ‘fatter’ year after year. Just when you think it cant get more outrageous in terms of opulence, you hear of an even more extravagant display of wealth, an even more ‘expensive’ performer at an even more exotic venue.
At a recent event industry convention EMF ACE 2015 held at Ahmedabad, experts from the wedding industry Swati PandyaSood from Ferns & Petals, Keyur Patel from Prasang Events and Hemant Kale from Swaha WMC came together on a panel to discuss destination weddings and nailing the right model.
It is evident that when exploring a new destination, partnerships with local service providers become important in order to pull together a show. To this Hemant Kale says, “When organizing a destination wedding local partners act like your backbone. Sure you may have thought of some great ideas but the support system to execute is formed by the local vendors.” But on what basis should one choose his partners? “Definitely not on the basis of cheapest cost”, states Kale. He adds, “Local partners should be carefully scrutinized, and once you have satisfactorily identified them, you need to simply trust them with their capabilities.” He suggests taking feedback from other event planners about a region before entering it. This allows one to have an inclination of the roadblocks that may be in store.
Elaborating further on the topic, Keyur Patel suggests that before going ahead and suggesting a venue to a client it is extremely important planners know whether it would be feasible as per their budget. Many a times organizers get ahead of themselves and suggest a destination without anticipating the cost implications which is a terrible idea.
Swati PandyaSood states, “At Ferns & Petals we pride ourselves for having a comprehensive databank of destinations, its local vendors, strategic alliance partners etc. This is extremely important to develop in order to provide the client with multiple options that lie within his budget.
Now, the wedding industry repeatedly redefines the term ‘grand’ with every ostentatious wedding that takes place. But what should have a stronger focus- dreaming an impressive concept or assessing the practicality of the concept. For Hemant Kale the dream comes first. “Once I am convinced with an idea my focus immediately after is to sell the dream to the client. After that my sole focus is on ensuring the dream comes to life”, he says.
Contradicting Hemant’s views Swati PandyaSood comments, “I would rather be practical and keep myself focused on something I am sure of rather than dream up something that may result in a potential disaster. This is a wedding we are talking about- it should be planned in a way that great memories can be created in a stress free environment for the guests. We cannot afford to get ahead of ourselves at the risk of causing inconvenience.”
But one would think that to grow the destination weddings industry wouldn’t it become important to explore the globe and recommend newer locales? Swati says, “I am against repetition. Thailand, for example, has been done to death. But that being said, the client doesn’t care about the growth of our industry, he only cares about that one special day. In the end we are all operating as independent companies and incase something goes down it is our reputation on the line.”
“Realizing a dream requires thorough research”, says Keyur Patel. “It can easily turn into a nightmare. Therefore it is important to move cautiously, plan and be prepared when organizing a destination wedding. You cannot afford to suffer any surprises.“
Speaking about their most important local partnerships, both Hemant Kale and Keyur Patel feel that management of logistics through an efficient hospitality partnership is the most critical.”
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