Mövenpick to lean towards personalised weddings this season

From left: Mövenpick Meetings and Events Assistant Director Lalin Silva, Mövenpick Marketing Manager Nadia Issadeen, Mövenpick Director of Sales and Marketing Padmi Fernando and Mövenpick General Manager George Koumendakos  

By Divya Thotawatte

In an attempt to cater to the need for ideal locations for private ceremonies, Mövenpick Hotel is to host its wedding fair for the second consecutive year under the theme ‘Curiously Intimate’. 

The ‘Mövenpick Weddings’ fair is to be held on 28 and 29 September and is open to all couples and interested clients from 10.00 a.m. to 7.00 p.m. The wedding fair aims to showcase the talents of the industry while promoting Sri Lanka as a wedding destination to an international audience. Mövenpick Marketing and Sales Manager Padmi Fernando said that this year the wedding fair was expected to receive over 500 visitors interested in an intimate wedding concept in a beautiful setting located in the heart of Colombo. 

“Our concept revolves around private weddings which is focused on weddings that are limited to an intimate circle of the bride and groom. Mövenpick has been the venue for many private functions since we started promoting our intimate venues for weddings, engagement ceremonies, homecoming receptions, bridal showers and all other related events. This has been the trend and we would like to cater to this segment in the most creative ways possible. Our partners are capable of both intimate and mass weddings and they will showcase their creativity accordingly,” Fernando explained. 

She added that the wedding fair was going to be different to last year. While the event was held throughout a floor of Mövenpick, this year, the fair will span over four floors of the hotel where different stalls will showcase creative services provided by industry partners. She said that in addition, this year’s fair would consist of a colourful Indian theme in the lobby level of the Mövenpick mansion while the rooftop would display a setup of a wedding which the visitors would be able to witness on the location and visualise their dream wedding. 

Fernando said that the wedding fair would also focus on promoting Sri Lanka as a wedding destination for international weddings.  

“We’re currently in a revival phase of tourism and Mövenpick being one of the most committed partners of tourism, we wanted to add an element of tourism to this event. Therefore, we partnered SriLankan Airlines and we will be bringing down five international wedding planners for our wedding fair and they will be able to familiarise themselves with destinations and locations and witness the creativity of the local wedding industry. It will also be a highlight for our partners who get to meet them one-on-one and interact with them.” 

With 28 carefully hand-picked partners from the industry, the exhibitors have been invited to create and transform the spaces allocated to them to make the event a success. The exhibitor list includes Charini Suriyage, Celebrations with Yasmin and Heshran Wedding Décor, Two Rings, Studio U, Nadun Baduge, Melache, KR Designer Bridal, Kingsman Studio, Hameedia, Fashion Fabrics, Caked by Amna, Michael Wijesuriya, The Wedding Project, Weddings by Shero, The Flower Place, Shine by Sanjeewani, Frances Décor, Wedding Connections, Elegance by Design, Stone-N-String, Sifani, Alankara, Robed Gift Works, Estheti Centre and the Colombo Card Factory. SriLankan Airlines is the official airline partner while Bride of Sri Lanka will once again partner up as the event’s exclusive bridal magazine. ODEL Home will be one of this year’s sponsors together with Softlogic Life while Pulse has come on board as the official online media partner. 

Furthermore, Mövenpick Hotel Colombo is to launch a special promotional price and is manning its own wedding stall this year with some exciting offers for future brides and grooms.