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As Mumbai-based finance executive Amit Angane tied the knot with bank officer Sonal Kanse (see picture) on 21 November, the relief among family members was palpable. Preparations for the wedding had been on for weeks, but the government's sudden move to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes threw everything into disarray. The venue had been booked and caterers paid partly in advance, but there was little cash in hand to meet other expenses. The stingy limits set on cheque and ATM withdrawals did not help. Finally, more than a dozen friends and relatives of both families came to the rescue by queuing up at ATMs daily for a week to put together Rs 1.5 lakh in cash. This allowed for the other vendors to be paid, and the wedding to take place as planned.

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So why has demonetisation hit the wedding industry so hard? Says Sachin Singhal, CEO and Co-founder of wedding portal Bandbaajaa.com, "The wedding industry is a cash-driven one. At least 60-70% of payments have to be made in hard currency". Vendors like florists, decorators and musicians are wary of taking remuneration in cheques and even more reluctant to deal with digital payments.

The whammy could not have come at a worse time. Since it is peak wedding season, a number of families had withdrawn large amounts of cash in notes that are now worthless.

For Ahmedabad-based Shyam Parekh's wedding to Reepal Parekh on 4 December, his parents had withdrawn Rs 5 lakh in cash in the first week of November. Now, they are running around trying to deposit the cash back in the bank and withdraw enough for the wedding at the same time. The Parekhs approached their bank to withdraw Rs 2.5 lakh from their savings account, but were turned away as the branch was unsure about the guidelines. They intend to approach the bank again with a set of documents as mentioned in the RBI guidelines announced on 21 November. Till then, emergency funds kept at home in Rs 100 notes and loans from friends are being used to cope.

The way around

So what can families do in a situation like this? According to Nikita Dogra, Cofounder of wedding planning firm Doli Saja Ke Rakhna, it might be a good idea to use one's home, if it's big enough, as the venue. This would take care of a huge cost. Concentrating on quality rather than quantity when it comes to the trousseau, limiting festivities to only one day instead of three, and being creative with decorations instead of opting for theme weddings are the cost-cutting ideas suggested by Sumathy Bachchan, owner of wedding planning firm Wedding Sutras.

Trimming down the guest list is another way of keeping costs low.School teacher Vandana Dhuriya and IT professional Vinod Kumar (see picture) got married in Uttar Pradesh's Ambedkar Nagar district on 23 November with only 100 odd guests in attendance, instead of the planned 350, and that too after relatives pitched in with `3 lakh in cash.

In Tier I and Tier II cities, one can go for cashless options while booking banquet halls. Abhishek Kadam, Director of Ritz Banquets in Mumbai, advises, "Opt for in-house services offered by the venue owners. That way you have to deal with only one entity rather than multiple unorganised vendors who insist on being paid in cash."

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