Big, fat Kolkata weddings shed weight under Covid compulsions, go safer

KOLKATA: Thermal checks instead of flower showers, disinfectant sprays at entrances instead of rose water, bottles of sanitizers and a face mask for each guest in place of mementos and strictly no late-evening rituals — the big, fat Kolkata wedding has undergone a sea change in a post-Covid world, a world where there can be a maximum of 50 guests, and the ceremony has to be wrapped up by 9pm.
And while no liquor can be served, it’s an entirely new game of tact and diplomacy to decide which second cousin or distant aunt to leave out of the invite list. Even the mandatory group photos with bride and groom are no longer allowed; neither are the countless hugs and handshakes.
A number of families have taken to live-streaming the entire ceremony and splitting guests into smaller home functions in the run-up to the actual wedding. “Planning a wedding was never easy. Now, it has got tougher as I had to tactfully invite friends and family to different functions on days leading up to the wedding, keeping only the closest relatives and friends for the wedding, as there’s a limit on the number of guests,” said Utsav, a businessman who got married last Tuesday.
Utsav had originally planned his wedding in Vietnam in February, but postponed the wedding to June 30 because of the pandemic, thinking he would hold a large reception at a city venue. But as the Covid numbers kept rising, he soon realised he would have to make it much, much smaller. “We had no clue whether the lockdown would be lifted by June, and were wondering whether we could at all get married now,” Utsav said. “We made the necessary changes when Unlock was announced, although the honeymoon has been put on hold indefinitely.”
The wedding season began last week and will continue till September. According to wedding planners, this year, it’s a new challenge for them: whatever decorations and innovations they make will be focused on social distancing and disinfection themes.
“We are working with a handful of staff, who are all in PPEs,” said Preksha Chhajer Choudhary, a city-based wedding planner. “At the time of the wedding, thermal scanning of all guests, disinfection of everyone entering the venue and distribution of masks and sanitizers at different levels of the wedding is a must now.”
Even the timings have changed. “To ensure all rituals are completed before the start of the night curfew hours, we even changed the ceremony timings and began the rituals from afternoon, even when the priest was saying evening was best time,” said a 26-year-old IT professional who got married on Thursday.
With distancing norms and the introduction of masks, the concept of wedding photography and wedding dress has also changed. There’s no more pre-wedding or post-wedding shoots and a strict no-no on large group shots. At some weddings, even some very Bengali rituals, such as chhadnatola and gaye-halud, which involved large gatherings, are being avoided.
“We are also working with a very small team of photographers to maintain distancing protocols,” said wedding photographer Anirban Brahma. Even grooms like Abhishek Gupta, who got married on Thursday, said they kept only packaged food for guests.