LUCKNOW:
Anju Srivastava
and her fiance had been planning their April 2020 wedding in the city for two years. The couple, who currently work in Pune, had also roped in a
wedding planner
from Delhi and made advance payments to vendors. The
coronavirus outbreak has derailed their dreams.
The engineer from
Gomtinagar
said they couldn't risk exposing guests to the infection. "Most of our relatives were coming from abroad and hotel rooms were booked. But, the health situation has spun out of control and safety is priority," she said, adding that if things didn't improve by October, they'd go for court marriage.
Anju is not the only one who's been forced to shelve plans for the big day. Several weddings slated for March-April are either being deferred or couples are settling for only a legal seal on love.
For Vishu and Pooja Rai, who had tied the knot in February, their reception in Tuscany followed by honeymoon was supposed to be a fairytale affair. "The reception was planned for my husband's friends who live in Italy. We have been stuck in a limbo ever since Italy became the epicentre of Covid-19," said Indiranagar resident Pooja. Lovebirds Sonali Sharma and Siddharth Lakhotia are planning a humble farmhouse wedding on Sitapur Road for their close-knit families in mid-April. "Hand sanitisers and face masks will be distributed among guests," said Siddharth, a businessman.
The corona effect on big, fat Lucknow weddings obviously doesn't augur well for. Amit Arora who works with an event management agency said last-minute cancellations were the worst. "The past week has been rough. We approximately lost Rs 30 lakh," he said.
International wedding designer and Lucknow girl Devika Narain sums it up best on her Instagram: "As we reshuffle schedules and realign calendars, let's remember the most important thing at a wedding are the guests and we can only be as strong as our teams."
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With inputs from Shreya Tripathi and Raghav Duggal