Eighty kilograms of silk flowers, 52 lanterns, Karan Johar with his repertoire of wisecracks, Shiamak Davar’s dancers with lit up props that look like fireflies moving in a rhythmic pattern, and Tiger Shroff performing his signature moves.
Over the weekend, the lawns at the JW Marriott Mumbai Sahar witnessed the re-launch of Shaadi by Marriott Bonvoy Re-imagined, an end to end wedding service solution, with an event they like to call “The Biggest Sangeet of the Year”. While there was no actual wedding taking place, this was Shaadi by Marriott Bonvoy’s way of showcasing what they are capable of organising if their clients are ready to marry with them.
“Weddings are a very important business segment for us,” says Khushnooma Kapadia, senior area director of marketing - South Asia Marriott International Inc., adding that in 2022 alone, 5,000 weddings took place in the Marriott properties across India. 12% of their revenues came from wedding-related events last year. The wedding market is currently witnessing a recovery rate that is at an all time post-pandemic high. "The last two quarters of FY 2022 have been extremely promising given the spike we’ve witnessed,” she adds.
Karan Johar was the Master of Ceremonies
“Planning weddings can get stressful for families and with our services they can just leave it on us and enjoy the festivities,” says Khushnooma. Each of the hotels has a wedding specialist. With a list of services spanning menu curation, beauty rituals, entertainment, decor, and even honeymoons, Marriott today is no longer just a venue. “We take care of the smallest things. For example, if a family is conservative and has food restrictions, their maharaj can come and cook in our kitchens,” she adds.
From vows on the beach to intimate ceremonies in the hills, they have organised it all. St Regis, Goa and Mumbai, JW Marriott, Mussoorie, Sheraton, Indore, W, Goa are some of the popular properties for destination weddings. “We have 138 hotels and resorts in India,” says Khushnooma. Now with new hotels and resorts coming up in different locations including the Himalayas, Shillong, and Coorg this curated wedding service will be available in more destinations.
With the world constantly changing and everything evolving, wedding trends too go through upheavals. The shaadi team keeps up with these changes be it in the culinary department or bridal wear. There are experiments and innovations that happen in-house as well. “At the launch, we had a never-seen-before kind of dessert bar that was fully decorated with hanging lights,” she says. As for the food menu, while guests got to sample global delicacies, what stood out was the Fermentation Lab (that featured “gut-friendly” dishes created with a technique that uses 2% lacto fermentation and kimchi) and Inno-wagon that had unconventional flavours such as puran poli ice cream, sand-pit roasted potatoes, and nitro kharwas.
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