Every business house associated with wedding arrangements in the city is witnessing a bull run for the last one week. And it is likely to continue till the month-end as couples wait eagerly to enter wedlock on auspicious days which happen to be a few this year.
With more than 5,500 marriages lined up in the next few days in the city, all kalyanamandapams, jewellery houses and apparel outlets are bustling with activity.
Owing to inauspicious period (‘sukra moodham’), the purohits say it is not suitable for performing wedding and ceremonies for the next three months. “The ‘muhurtam’ season concludes the month-end and the next auspicious period starts only in March. Sri Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha Swami temple, Simhachalam, has seen 150 marriages so far this week and still counting,” says R.V.V.S. Prasad, assistant executive officer, Simhachalam Devasthanam.
About 32 GVMC kalyanamandapams, some run by private agencies, across 72 wards along with a number of private function halls are witnessing frenetic activity as the marriage parties booked the halls well in advance. The hospitality sector also finds the trend quite encouraging. “We have all four banquet halls booked till this month. Further, the advance booking for March 2018 has already started trickling in,” says S. Ajit Kumar, general manager of Fortune Inn Sree Kanya.
Vizagapatam Cloth Merchants Association president Kankatala Mallik says the textile trade has seen a considerable rise in sales for the past few weeks. “However, the season is going to be dull for the next three months. Even during Sankranti, the sales may not be very exciting unlike previous years as there are no immediate muhurtams followed by the festival,” he says.
Jewellery stores recorded more footfalls as business volume increased to 40-45% in November.
After the imposition of GST which saw a steep fall in the business in various sectors, the wedding season has come as a morale booster for event managers and caterers as they now have their hands full for the next one week.
However, caterers find it challenging to meet the growing demand for their services. “On an average, we are catering to four to five marriage parties a day. The count has already crossed 20 for the past four days,” says D. Gopal, who heads Kumari catering service.
