It was a wedding like no other. There was no pomp and show, no big crowd, band or horse accompanied the groom. An alarm rang every half an hour at the wedding hall at The Ritz-Carlton in Pune. That was a cue for the guests to sanitise their hands using sanitisers being handed out by the family of the bride to the guests.

It was a wedding in the time of Covid-19.

When Sushmita Bhandari and Sagar Kothari decided to get married, they had made grand plans. Then came the coronavirus pandemic. Getting more than 50 people together became illegal, and inadvisable because of the risk of infection. So Bhandari, 25, an actress, and her fiance Sagar Kothari, 27, a jewellery exporter, decided to improvise and not organise a big show.

“We had to replan everything — from managing the guests to organising food. We were supposed to get married in my house. But we couldn’t have followed social distancing there. So we had to shift to a hotel willing to accommodate us,” says Bhandari, who has been on shows like Sacred Games on Netflix.

The couple designed masks in two different colours — one for the bride’s guests and the other for the groom’s. Another family member was designated to sanitise all the jewellery and outfit. All the food was prepared by the hotel in advance. There were no servers in the room, instead an oven was placed for guests who wanted their meal piping hot.

To ensure all the cousins and friends could take part in the joyous occasion, the couple held the various marriage functions over two days so that they could invite different sets of people for different events, keeping the number at 50 people per event.

People like Bhandari and Kothari are among those who have decided to go ahead with their plans to tie the knot. These people are refusing to let the lockdown regulations keep them from starting a new life. So what if the celebrations cannot be as glitzy as they used to be. These settings are amply special, too, say those who’ve gone ahead with their marriage plans.

It wouldn’t have been an easy decision for many. There would be no toasts, no ebullient singing and dancing or strutting around in sequin-doused designer outfits. The modesty is likely to have an impact on India’s $40-50 billion wedding industry.

But a pandemic can’t keep matrimony away. So Mumbai-based Madhura Lingayat and Yatharth Joshi decided to go ahead with their marriage ceremony on June 30 and not wait for a later date. Besides, Joshi’s work in an oil firm often kept him out of the city for long, says Lingayat, a wedding photographer.

“We went to the venue on a hunch on Saturday and asked if they would be able to host the wedding on Tuesday,” says Lingayat, 34. They got the venue at The International by Tunga but many things didn’t work out the way they planned.

The wedding sari that was ordered online didn’t arrive on time, so at the last minute, Lingayat had to rush to a store that was open.

Joshi, 33, got dressed in his Sunday best but had to do without a wedding procession and the customary ritual of joota chupai.

Fruit champagne flowed instead of the alcoholic variant. It wasn’t the wedding of their dreams but an intimate affair, nevertheless, with 50 people.

The couple live-streamed the ceremony for friends and family who could not make it to the event.

“I never thought ecommerce websites like Amazon and Myntra would act like my bridesmaids and help me select everything and that my actual bridesmaids would be on sanitiser and mask duty,” chuckles Lingayat.

But masks won’t keep the glitzy celebrations away for long, say wedding curators. A lot of the weddings that are happening now were scheduled to be held at international destinations. As travelling is impossible now, many decided to have private ceremonies now and plan to have grander shows when the lockdown rules are relaxed.

Devika Narain, who designed the wedding of Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma, says once the lockdown restrictions are completely lifted, wedding designers will play a much more prominent role at these intimate functions.

“Brides and grooms will review floor plans of smaller spaces to maximise space, especially if it is a ceremony at their home or farmhouse. The core of the celebration won’t change,” says the Mumbai-based Narain.

So far, wedding planners haven’t had much of an ask. Most people have been curating their own weddings. Sushil Shamlal Wadhwa, founder of Platinum World Grroup, says the demand is coming back.

“A niche demand is surfacing for intimate weddings that conform to the rules.”

He has advised his clients to postpone their weddings now due to the risks, but adds a bounceback is likely only in the next 2-3 months.

So how will the new weddings be? “Quality” in weddings will become more important, says Narain. “They won’t have 30 dishes but maybe just five specialised ones. Everyone attending the wedding will be close to the family and they’d want only the best for them,” she adds.

Weddings will certainly become smaller affairs, says Mehak Sagar Shahani, cofounder of website WedMeGood.com that caters to wedding makers. The industry may also see a resurgence of resort weddings. “With 50 guests, you can manage your immediate family and just a few friends.”

The platform had seen a drop of nearly 80% for searches and queries during the lockdown. But things have bounced back now to its regular numbers.

“Most weddings will now happen in the auspicious period of October-March this year,” adds Shahani. “But everyone is in a little bit of denial. The general consensus is that things will improve and most queries on our website are for at least 200-people weddings.”

That is what Nishant and Sneha Vageriya intend to do when the lockdown is lifted.

“Marwari weddings are a grand affair,” says Nishant, 29, a strategy consultant at a conglomerate. So their family had planned for 1,000+ guests. When the lockdown was announced, Nishant and Sneha, a publicist, had a simple affair with 28 close family members on June 30. They didn’t even have a professional photographer to cover the event.

“We had selected everything from the venues to caterers. We did not get any of our advances back but the hotels have asked us to choose another date in the next one year. We hope to have a grand celebration soon,” says Nishant.

The couple had completed their shopping earlier as their wedding was scheduled for March 20, just a few days before the lockdown.

But not everyone has that comfort. Neha Parekh, 26, is still glum that her sister and friends in Nagpur could not make it to her wedding with Harsh in Pune on June 25.

The couple had been together for about six years before they decided to marry. They had placed orders with designers Manish Malhotra and DollyJ for a few of their ensembles, which are now vouchers for a later date. And they were looking forward to a pre-wedding cocktail party.

“It is a difficult time for those who got married during the lockdown without much family and friends around,” says Neha, a makeup artist.

Harsh, a businessman, adds that the hardest part was to secure permissions from the local police to allow them to host a 50-people gathering. They got married at The Conrad in Pune.

“We had to follow compulsory mask and sanitisation norms. Our family and friends who couldn’t join were watching a live-stream through Zoom, Facebook and Instagram,” says Harsh, 30.

Like Neha, Chennai-based Nandini Chokkalingam, 23, too got quite emotional when she learnt the lockdown was standing in the way of her marriage with Thalapathy Shanmugam.

Their “whole plan came crashing down”. But Chokkalingam, who works as a makeup artist, and Shanmugam, a wedding photographer, decided they were going ahead with their marriage plan. They decided on June 10 .

“Limiting the guest list to 50 was easy to pull off. But we struggled to get our deposit back from the venue as we required a smaller one now.”

After securing the necessary permissions and a suitable venue, they decided to review the traditional wedding fare to ensure safety and convenience. So the traditional sweets made way for Snickers chocolate bars. The welcome drink, usually served in glasses by a person, was dumped for juice in Tetra Pak. The guests were given pastel masks and sanitiser kits, and strict instructions to wear them.

“Our relatives made the food. Usually, guests do not dispose the banana leaves on which they are served the traditional fare. But this time, they did. We didn’t let the pandemic affect us. We adapted,” says Chokkalingam. “But when this is all over, we will have a nice, big cocktail party!”