Wedding season returns to Vizag as Covid-19 cases drop

Two months ago, Vizag found itself in another lockdown, as Covid-19 cases were rising again, hospitals got packed and there were no allowances for any social events. Weddings were being postponed as no one wanted to get married in the underlying circumstances. But now, the situation has improved significantly and the daily number of cases has dropped down to below 200. People are still cautious but also want to start living normally again. Hence, quite a few weddings are being planned in the city in July and August. Many event managers, and photographers, have started receiving a number of assignments. From the looks of it, the wedding season has returned to Vizag.

Previously, the government had given guidelines to perform weddings with a limited number of 50 guests while following Covid-19 protocols. Those who had postponed their weddings are now preparing to get married in the coming two months. “This pandemic situation is not giving us much time to make life decisions. Looking at the current situation in the city, we have decided to do our daughter’s wedding in August. Though we initially had plans to fix dates six months later, worrying about a third wave pandemic, we do not want to take that risk,” said Geetha, home-maker. 

Surprisingly, there have also been many people, hailing from Vizag, who are registering for marriages in other countries as they are unable to come back to the city due to visa issues. These weddings are now happening virtually with their parents on computer screens. 

The returning wedding season comes as a boost for the wedding halls, makeup artists, event managers and photographers in Vizag who are in high demand. According to the event managers, once the situation came back to normal, they were paid in advance and booked for the weddings.

“We had lost the contract of many weddings in the second wave of the pandemic. However, as the cases dropped down, we have got many bookings for weddings in the next two months. The majority of them are worried about the third wave, so they have decided to get the weddings done in the current normal situation,” said Phani, a wedding photographer. 

“It was a huge loss for us since May when we had to return the advance booked for some of the weddings. Be it a simple or a grand wedding, even we couldn’t risk the situation. Now that the cases have come down, we have got the wedding contract blocked for nearly a month,” said the owner of a catering business at Akkayyapalem.