Wedding venue businesses hope for busy year amid challenges

AMMAN — This year wedding halls are expected to be busier, however sector challenges will remain, according to a stakeholder.

“It is still early to say whether this year started off better, but the demand until now is moderate,” Mamun Al Manaseer, head of the Wedding Venues and Planning Businesses Association, told The Jordan Times on Wednesday.

This year, according to Manaseer, demand for wedding halls and venues might “slightly increase”, and some couples are showing interest in putting down an early deposit on venues.

As for 2022, the local wedding venue sector faced successive challenges. Last year, wedding venues were less busy than average and the majority of vendors evenly felt the increase in operating expenses, and hundreds of wedding businesses were closed for good, he said.

Manaseer said that in 2022, bookings decreased by around 30-40 per cent when compared with previous years. 

The average costs of wedding venues, halls or even outdoor spaces range between JD2,000 and JD3,500 these days, and in many cases, the prices can be lower as sector operators continuously offer discounts and special packages, he noted.

He added that the majority of bookings now are either on Fridays or Sundays. 

“We might be having many opportunities coming this year, but we are still facing many challenges,” he noted.