The changing trend and social media have resulted in spillover effects for wedding entrepreneurs to leverage on

By NUR HAZIQAH A MALEK / Pic By Source: myweddingplanner.com.my

The wedding industry is one of the most lucrative businesses in Malaysia, reportedly worth up to RM7 billion a year.

On average, there are about 300,000 couples who tie the knot in this country per year, with millennials being the biggest contributor to the industry’s market share.

The changing trend and emergence of social media have resulted in many spillover effects for wedding entrepreneurs to leverage on, from merely providing catering services to offering wedding planning services that include providing venues, decorations and even social media ‘live’ updates of the wedding.

However, that puts no stop for the bridal industry with event planners especially seeing that most of their revenue contributors are from wedding events.

Detik Events (Detik) wedding planner and coordinator Aqilah Lokman told The Malaysian Reserve that wedding events make up most of the events managed by her company.

“Most of our events under Detik are wedding-related events, although we manage parties and fun events as well. You could say 85% of our projects are wedding-related,” she said in a recent interview.

She added that the industry is constantly growing, especially with the up-and-coming new trends demanded by the modern, city brides.

“Ten years ago, bridesmaids, photo booth and candy buffets were not as important as they are today.

The bridal industry is constantly growing with new trends almost every year,” she said.

Aqilah said Detik is often tasked with the coordination of hotel weddings because most couples still prefer to plan their special events.

“Many couples prefer to plan their own weddings, but coordination is important and requires extra attention, hence most clients prefer getting our coordination services only,” she said.

According to her, floor and crowd management are among the technicalit ies that ensure the smoothness of movement during a wedding.

Still, there has been a change of preference for some millennial couples, who prefer a low-key, exclusive wedding party, unlike conventional receptions.

According to Ho, among the upcoming trends from the current industry is individuality over the acceptance of traditions and families

MY Wedding Planner Sdn Bhd principal planner Lane Ho said among the upcoming trends from the current industry is individuality over the acceptance of traditions and families.

In order to achieve the individuality, themed weddings with specific decorations are on the rise.

“Wedding is about your style, your fantasy and masterpiece nowadays, compared to 10 years ago, but they also emphasise on guest interaction and bonding during the party,” she said.

“It is not only themed decorations that appear more frequent lately, but there are also more activities for guests to participate and great performance to entertain them,” she said.

Ho said depending on the couples’ desired wedding party, their budget range is often pretty varied.

“I always advise the couple to keep your wedding guests number smal l, do some do-it-yourself decorations to stay within the budget,” she said.

According to her, a couple has spent RM30,000 for a wedding in Tioman.

“Take, for example, last year, I planned a small scale of wedding for 30 pax in a rustic diver beach in Tioman with not much of a set up and they used all raw materials in Tioman for local food buffet,” she said.

In Malaysia, there are at least four wedding exhibitions lined up for the year, with the most recent one being JomKahwin which ran on Feb 2-4 and will be running again in November, and the upcoming wedding exhibition called Kahwinje by KLPJ Events Sdn Bhd on April 20 and in September.

At these exhibitions, boutiques, decorators, planners and wedding photographers gather to promote their portfolios to visitors.