Planning a perfect wedding is becoming increasingly a difficult task these days. With most relatives based out of town and time being premium, brides, grooms and their immediate kin spend sleepless nights as they eagerly wait for the D-Day.

Shambhu Sharan is one of them. The Kankerbagh resident is busy planning his daughter’s June wedding. He said: “It takes a lot of time to look into all details to make a wedding ceremony a success. But who has the time to plan? It is not possible to arrange everything by yourself.”

Sharan’s solution is to book a wedding hall, rather than hiring wedding planners. “I have booked an open area of 35 cottahs for Rs 91,000. The package will include decoration and lighting. All I have to worry about is the food.”

The father of the bride has opted for an open space at a time Patna has an event management company of its own — Kosha Fantasy — since November 2010 to plan weddings.

He said: “They are very few professional wedding planners in Patna and the ones who are there, are very costly. They charge somewhere between Rs 20 lakh and Rs 25 lakh, while booking an open area with decoration and lighting costs Rs 1-2 lakh.”

Shouvik Narain, one of the co-owners of Kosha Fantasy, said: “The concept of opting for professional wedding planners is still not in great demand. Most people think hiring wedding planners is a costly affair but they hardly understand that we organise everything for the wedding.”

“Our rates are mostly equivalent or a little more than the expense one would incur from arranging a wedding on their own. But we make sure the weddings we plan are unique and become the talk of the town. We organise theme weddings and no two events are the same,” added Narain.

Manish Gupta, a caterer for Party Zone, a marriage hall in Bhagwat Nagar, said: “Every wedding season we book around 40-50 clients and receive bookings two-three months in advance. Demand has gone up by 50 per cent in just a few years.”

One of the packages offered by Party Zone for Rs 91,000 includes a 35-cottah land, 250 fibre chairs, 50 cushioned chairs, five round tables, lights, stage decoration and big chairs for the bride and groom. For flower decoration, clients have to pay Rs 30,000-Rs 2 lakh.