As destination weddings resume, Sri Lanka gets into the act, organising Wedding Week 2022, first multinational wedding event in the region since outbreak of pandemic. Sri Lanka has also invited two leading Indian designers to showcase their collections during the week, alongside their counterparts from Sri Lanka and Maldives.

Four noted designers from India and the Maldives will join leading Sri Lankan designers to showcase their creations in Wedding Week 2022, Sri Lanka’s primary destination wedding event, organised by The Brides Of Sri Lanka magazine. The 2022 edition is being held on February 19-20 at the Galle Face Hotel. A number of exciting activities and series of bridal shows have been planned for the event that is being organised with support of Sri Lanka Tourism Bureau and SriLankan Airlines that joined hands to promote wedding tourism in the country.

Among the invited designers is Umang Hutheesing, president of Hutheesing Design Company that was established 1835 and which tied up with Tiffany & Co 1881 and won 9 gold medals at the Paris World Expo 1900 as one of the finest design firms in the world. It executed the East Wing of the White House and Durbar Hall of Osborne House at Queen Victoria’s Palace. Umang is a Managing Trustee of Hutheesing Visual Arts Center and the President of Hutheesing Heritage Foundation. He is the 5th generation to head the firm and has been Creative Consultant at American Vogue, Teen Vogue and many international media. He was instrumental in putting together India’s First Fashion Week.

He has collaborated with Holland & Holland, the official outfitters to Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles, and has showcased at Buckingham Palace for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations. He has also done panels for the Roosevelt House of the US. He is the only Indian designer to have shown over 300 of his creations at renowned international museums. Umang is expected to showcase 10 couples on February 20 at Wedding Week 2022.

The other Indian designer, Nivedita is a national award-winning designer who has showcased her collections at the London Fashion Week, Paris, Hongkong, South Korea, Malaysia, Colombo, Dubai and major cities in India. She is the founding curator for the Global Shapers Community of the World Economic Forum and has been conferred with the prestigious Bharat Gaurav Award for her significant contributions towards impacting life through sustainable and adaptive fashion. Warner Bros studio has chosen Nivedita as its official designer for India for their couture and prêt collections. Nivedita is the only Indian designer to have created bespoke outfits for the first family of Lamborghini.

Aishath Shamla is a creative and popular fashion designer in the Maldives with extensive experience in orchestrating all aspects of women’s clothing. With over four decades of experience in dress making, the self-made seamstress and designer specialises in a full range of womenswear, from wedding gowns to casual dresses. She runs a fashion boutique in the heart of Male. She has showcased locally and internationally, including at Bangladesh Fashion Week. She will be showcasing 10 bridals at Wedding Week 2022. The other Maldivian designer is Aishath Shifza, who is especially popular among the youth. Shifza has showcased her designs at numerous shows in Maldives.

Kimarli Fernando, chairperson of Sri Lanka Tourism, says that with increasing access to affordable travel options and a large number of scenic locations, destination weddings have rapidly gained popularity. “Destination weddings play an important role for businesses involved in travel and tourism. The increase in the number of hotels, resorts, cruise line stop-offs and flight-connectivity, has made it easier for couples to get married at their desired destination,’’ Fernando tells India Outbound.

‘‘One in 4 weddings is a destination wedding. The destination wedding market accounts for USD 16 billion in annual spending and the average budget for a destination wedding is USD 28,000. Wedding tourism has grown in popularity over the last decade and is now recognised as an important market sector with the potential to improve business performance by combining two segments into one destination. This is a niche market that has yet to be exploited and that may be developed as a diverse tourism product with seasonality curtailed,” adds Fernando.

Fernando says that India is Sri Lanka’s primary wedding tourist market due to cultural and geographical proximity, although China and European countries are other important markets that Sri Lanka can pursue. She says that the Covid-19 has had a major impact on business as it forced postponements of weddings across the world, with as much as 80 pc of all wedding events getting postponed or cancelled.

Nelum Haththella, founder and managing director of Brides Of Sri Lanka, the leading wedding magazine in Sri Lanka, says that the sector had been crippled due to the pandemic and that the Wedding Week 2022 is expected to restart wedding tourism in the country.

“Sri Lanka suffered greatly, especially in the wedding economy where everyone suffered greatly during the pandemic in the last two years. As a magazine we have lots of wedding suppliers who are linked with us. The objective of the event is to create a platform for them and to reconnect them with prospective brides and grooms and also to reconnect them with the rest of the world, to help brides and grooms from around the world who select Sri Lanka as a destination for their weddings, to help them find suppliers through this event,’’ Haththella tells India Outbound.

Fernando says that the pent up demand over the last two years is expected to drive a quick turnaround in the fortunes of the sector. “Many couples prefer destination weddings in the post-pandemic period through 2022 and beyond. This will help destination wedding companies and the travel industry to generate revenue partially mitigating losses that arose during the pandemic,” adds Fernando.

“We hope to support the wedding industry that has greatly suffered in the last two years due to the global pandemic and also promote wedding tourism, which in turn will help our economy and our nation”, says Haththella. “There is a good population of Indians living in Sri Lanka. The entire event is going to be live streamed virtually. We are providing a platform to all brides and grooms from around the world to visit the Expo. We are expecting a lot of digital footprint not only from India, but also from all over the world. We are targeting only elite prospective brides and grooms through this event and with that anyway the families come together. We are expecting tourism as a whole for Sri Lanka to benefit out of this event because when people come for a wedding they come with their families and friends,’’ she says.