Turning Dreams Into Destination Wedding Realities: An Exclusive Interview With Pramod Lunawat
In the enchanting world of weddings, where love stories take centre stage, there exists a class of creatives who possess the unparalleled ability to turn dreams into reality. Meet Pramod Lunawat, Founder and CEO, Millennium Event and Marriageuana, the visionary architect behind some of the most breathtakingdestination weddings. In this exclusive interview, we get you his insights and the magic they weave into every destination wedding they orchestrate.
Excerpts
What are the challenges and opportunities in the destination wedding space?
In India, the first challenge is the availability of rooms. There is a surge of people wanting to get married in five-star hotels or deluxe hotels, whereas the inventory is not so much. While the hotels are having a field day asking for phenomenally obnoxious rates at times, the clients or planners are having a difficult time finding the right space. The second challenge is the level of commitment of the vendors. Internationally, the challenges are that some destinations are fixed in the minds of the Indian customer because flights are very convenient to the location, like Italy, France, or Spain. But there are unexplored destinations like Croatia, Austria, Czech Republic, or Hungary, where there is scenic beauty, there is economy of cost to a certain extent and resources are largely available too, but direct flights are not available. Then there is the 20 per cent tax collected at source (TCS) that's applicable from October 1, which the government has implemented on every foreign exchange transaction. Every penny that you spend above Rs 7 lakh is going to be subjected to 20 per cent TCS. That's a big challenge because, for every Rs 100 you spend, you're paying Rs 20 extra.
What factors do you look at before shortlisting destinations, venues, and suppliers for your events and weddings?
Reputation, references of peers in the industry and past experiences of our own company with those vendors. For the new designers or vendors that are coming up, we visit the studios and check their stuff out. As far as the aesthetic designers are concerned, as far as the production design is concerned, in terms of sound, light, and more, we only work with people who have a strong word of mouth in the industry or we have worked with previously.
How do you balance the creative and business aspects of your work?
Well, you must convince your client what you're proposing is of value. The perceived value should be higher than what you are spending on the creative aspect of the event, which is a wedding or a social event. Unless a client is convinced that he's spending one and people think he spent ten, it probably does not click.
How do you customise tailor-made experiences for your clients?
It's the first meeting, to be honest, when we go to their house or their office, we understand whether this is going to be a good fit with my way of working or my agency's way of working. For every client, there's an agency that's always there. It may not always be me. If I go and meet a client, I understand the way they speak, the way they serve the first cup of tea, the way they treat punctuality, professionalism. Once that is through, we decide whether or not to work with them.
My team members and I attend a lot of international conventions across the world. I try to attend about six to seven of them every year. Because that's where you learn from peers in the industry. That's the way we have always preferred.
How do you create a memorable and immersive experience for the guests at your events and weddings?
You can be immersive or memorable in three or four aspects. I think the first of them is hospitality. If you are warm and if you have meticulously planned right from the time they arrive, you have done a very good part of it already. The second would be the food experience. Then comes the gifting, the decor and the entertainment. I think those are places where you can spend a lot, but hospitality and food are where you can plan very well, so that's how we ensure a very immersive and delightful experience for our guests.
How important are local culture and traditions in destination weddings?
You have to be mindful of which part of the world you are in. You cannot be doing a Rajasthani dance welcome in Dubai, for example. If you're overdoing it, then you're wasting your client's money, you're not giving the right experience to both your guest and your client. You have to be mindful of where you are and use the resources available there to the best of your advantage. For us, as an agency, we always use one or two events in every wedding, which are completely themed with the food and entertainment of that local culture, our clients have welcomed the idea when we pitch it to them.
