As we bid adieu to 2020, we look back to our roller-coaster journey. A 20-day transcontinental wedding spanning three countries - #AnshAna, was indeed a dream start for C2E. Our calendar looked buoyant with destination weddings across Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan, India etc. throughout the year.
We thought we had it all covered with backup plans in place, leaving no scope for any last-minute surprises. However, came an uninvited guest i.e. COVID 19. The belligerence of humanity was being challenged by a microscopic being. Many projects had to be cancelled or postponed indefinitely as we all were coming to terms with this unprecedented crisis and it took us some time to absorb and acclimatise to this glaring reality. The little devil brought with it a wave of challenges and new norms, bringing everything to a halt. It was like the world had hit a RESET mode.
Nevertheless, it proved to be a year of resilience, strengthening of existing partnerships, forging of new alliances. The time awarded us with the opportunity to reinvent ourselves and take a break to reassess our priorities. As the adage goes - ‘Adversity is the door to opportunity’ - We used this occasion to re-strategize wedding planning and pivot our business model to suit the #NewNormal and expand our geographical reach.
Glimpse of #Anshana World
Adapting to change is an integral part of our DNA as planners and so the #Wednerds at C2E took this as an opportunity to ponder over ideas to triumph over these unprecedented times. We initiated a COVID Support Programme (CSP), a platform to share common concerns and aid couples in distress by providing practical solutions with the support of our partners and associates from all around the world.
We used our ample #WFH time to put our planning caps on and do what we do best i.e. lookout for unexplored and unique destinations to add to our portfolio and understand their preparedness for the #NewNormal. At the first window of opportunity, we physically travelled to some of these places for a thorough recce viz. Kazakhstan, Portugal, Poland, Maldives, Holland, UAE - to offer you a plethora of fresh perspectives and experiences interspersed with unconventional wedding trends. We won’t spoil the fun by telling you all about it but we’ll definitely show you a snippet of #C2EOnGround.
As destination ambassadors, we realised the importance of reassessing our roles and directed our efforts in addressing and instilling client confidence for future leisure travel and celebrations. Underlining the importance of knowledge sharing and collaborations, we curated and hosted the first-ever ‘virtual recce’ to Baku, for the entire wedding ecosystem and stakeholders, in association with their tourism board. With a similar session in Italy with a group of global event planners, we exchanged our thoughts on the impact of COVID-19 on the wedding industry and the way forward.
C2E New Footprints
As the first half of the year came to an end, the time was ripe for us to showcase what we had gathered in the first half of the year in the form of a mock intimate Wedding Shoot. The idea behind this collaboration was to depict the readiness of the event planning ecosystem and allay the apprehensions of prospective clients to move forward with optimism. It not just garnered an unexpected amount of rave-reviews after its revelation but also led us to plan and curate two very special weddings. One was a delightful one-dayer in Dubai and another was a magnificent union amidst the serenading beach views in aamchi Mumbai.
The concepts and ideas from the shoot - of a small yet intimate gathering, unconventional celebrations, choicest of gastronomic experiences and much more - were adopted to be successfully executed as part of these nuptials. New practices such as COVID protection clauses and contingency planning became keywords during negotiations with the suppliers. We saw wedding insurance to be a rising new trend in the domain of weddings to ward off risks from such unplanned occurrences.
Intimate Wedding Shoot
#GidDeeInLove Snapshots
Memorable #ViralWedding
Today, as we reminisce the year gone by, we see so much it had to offer. This unprecedented halt in our journey in 2020 taught us that there is power in unity and staying connected. As this transformational year comes to an end, we hope to begin the new year with newer destinations, fresher wedding trends, conscious travel, and celebrations. We hope to move forward together by sharing and learning from our achievements and experiences.
Let us celebrate ‘New Us’.
We wish all our readers a very Happy New Year.
