Revolutionising Weddings: In Conversation With Chetan Vohra

In the ever-evolving realm of weddings, where love stories take centre stage and dreams come to life, there exists a class of visionaries who have mastered the art of turning nuptial celebrations into extraordinary experiences, step into the world of weddings with us as we sit down with Chetan Vohra, Managing Director, Line Communications & Weddingline, a trailblazer in the wedding industry.

Excerpts:

How has technology influenced the wedding industry, and what role does Weddingline play in this transformation? 

Technology has taken over every aspect of the world, especially after Covid-19, including the way our children go to school and the way we attend work. Nowadays, nobody is travelling at the drop of a hat to faraway places for meetings. From a wedding standpoint, we got into the technology game about seven or eight years ago when apps started coming up. There have been certain other R&Ds that are going on. For example, we are trying to look at bot-based tele-calling and RSVP. I think as a wedding company we are still largely experiential; technology today has made the human experience considerably better. Today you don't need to walk into a destination wedding and walk into a counter to register yourself or a guest and get your room key. Everything is digital. Your key card reaches you on your phone. 

What trends do you see emerging in the wedding industry? 

There is a significant transformation in the way everything moves. There was a time when everybody wanted to go to Thailand, that was the place to be. Today you have various places, largely unexplored, like Vietnam or Croatia, where people are now thronging to. Change is a part of the whole game that we do. The biggest change I see is in the mindset of the people. Of course, planners cribbed about the fact that there were only 50 people and 100 people allowed at weddings during Covid but what our clients taught us was that even if the number of people is less, it doesn't matter because they have the same amount of money. They wanted to spend on over 1,000 people before, now they want to spend the same amount on 100 or 200 people. The client mindset has changed largely to giving the guests an experience of a lifetime. Weddings have now become mini experiential get-togethers. 

Sustainability and eco-friendly weddings have become more popular. How do you implement eco-conscious practices? 

Sustainability is a byproduct of change; the new generation is very particular about what we are doing to the planet. I think sustainability is something that they have adopted as their mantra, and they are thankfully forcing us all to look in that direction. Food wastage is something we monitor, for example, we've run a few weddings where we didn't have buffets, we only had live stations and the chefs will cook it for you then and there. The advantage here is that you pick up the amount you want to eat, there is very little food that is taken off your plate and put into a bin. We are also working with our caterers to have sponsored places with machines that can recycle garbage. I think sustainability is the direction we have to move in. 

We have seen destination weddings are on the rise, what is leading to this phenomenal growth? 

Destination weddings are at an all-time high because governments have increasingly opened up to the concept of wedding tourism. They want more visitors to come and spend more money. They want them to partake in their local economy. I am proud to say that our company has been at the forefront of talking to multiple governments and consulting them on wedding tourism. It is the thing of the future and it's a great win-win for everybody. 

What sets experiential weddings apart from traditional ones?

Even a traditional wedding is an experience today. Technology is enveloping everything. But if I take a wedding of 100 people to a Tibetan monastery, and we sit down quietly, meditate for a few hours, and partake in their rituals, then for those 100 people, that's a wedding which is completely different from what anyone would have thought. There was a wedding we did where we didn't have a caterer, we had three very well-known restaurants from Delhi who set up their mini-restaurants. I think anything that makes the event interesting, anything that is fresh, anything that's new, that's what people want and that's what you call experiences. 

How does storytelling enhance weddings, and how do couples weave their unique stories into their big day? 

I think every wedding is a story. If it's an arranged marriage, then it's a story that's being written out live. If it's a love story, then that's a story that's already been written and you joined the picture to see the happy ending or the beginning of a new journey for them. We take the art of storytelling very seriously, right from the time we get to know our clients, we ask them about their stories, about how their parents met, and how their grandparents met. I recently recreated somebody's parents' wedding, right down to the set, right down to the food menu, right down to the clothes they wore, right down to the kind of photography that was in black and white. I think storytelling is the Ganga that runs through the entire wedding experience. It's the Holy Grail, if you have a great story, it's gripping, everybody's going to read it, everybody's going to write about it, everybody's going to talk about it and I think that's what's important. We all want stories, whether it's a good ending or a bad ending. 

How do couples add personal touches to their weddings, and what does it mean for the guest experience? 

Personalisation has been there for a while, not just in weddings, you go to a hotel, and you have your name on the screen, on a letter pad, and in a bag. Personalisation is now a tried and tested phenomenon. We don't like to waste money on frivolous stuff, which we think will get us a moment's happiness. We've taken personalisation to an experiential level. Every wedding has a hamper for every room. Many people would open a packet of chips, have maybe two or three little pieces and leave the rest. Now that's waste, you can't do anything about it, and you can't give it to anyone else. We came up with the concept of a live ‘dukan’. It's called the ‘WeddingLine Dukan’, It's like a convenience store. When you check into a hotel for a wedding, you are directed to this convenience store and you can decide to pick up whatever you want. This saves money for my client, and it saves a lot of waste in the industry. We've seen that there's been a 70 per cent reduction in wastage because of this. Personalisation does not have to be gift cases containing 20 things with your name, it can also mean an experience. A personal cooking lesson from a celebrated chef is a personal experience that you will carry forever. Personalisation today, I think, has become very generic and we are trying to change the game, we are trying to make it more experiential and more soulful