Khubsurat Vatika decked up for a wedding. Picture by Jai Prakash

Residents looking for banquet halls to throw parties or host family functions would be hard pressed to find any for nearly a month.

The wedding season that kicked off on Thursday has taken up all space in the capital. Wedding planners of the city are virtually exhausted organising the nuptials and hall owners are juggling bookings. The prime choice of every client — from Patna and outside — is spacious halls and the options have run out.

Nishant Soni, the owner of Subh Aagman, a firm that plans weddings, said: “The city has very few spacious banquet halls. The clients always prefer a spacious area to a hall.”

Of the options present in the city, Soni said most are pre-booked and have a long waiting list. Several families have given up hope of organising the wedding of their sons and daughters in the state capital.

“I have visited almost all the banquet halls in the city. But even the small ones are booked for the entire wedding season that will continue till December 15,” said Narayan Jha. The Patna resident has now decided to go to his native town of Lakhisarai to hold his son’s marriage.

Most wedding planners, hotel officials and hall owners said they regret disappointing clients but cannot offer them any help. Satya Samantre, the manager of Khubsurat Vatika on Bailey Road, said there has been a 14 per cent increase in booking at his establishment in the last two months.

Maurya general manager B.D. Singh said: “All of our three wedding suites are booked. It is tough for us to disappoint the customers. The worst thing for the locals is most of our bookings have been made by people from New Delhi, Chandigarh and Calcutta.”

People living outside or on the outskirts of Patna have also booked the available halls. “We get maximum of the bookings on our website. Almost 50 per cent of the bookings have been placed on the site and most of them are from clients living on the outskirts of Patna,” said Samantre, whose hall is spread over 20,000sqft.

Satya Anand Singh, a resident of Mokama, is one of the people who have booked Samantre’s Khubsurat Vatika for his daughter’s wedding. “It is very difficult for us to plan a well-managed marriage ceremony at our native place. Once the marriage is fully planned, as it is in the capital, it also cuts down other expenses.”

The manager of Vijyatej Clarks Inn, Rakesh, said: “We have four banquet halls designed for marriage ceremonies. All of them are booked for the initial marriage dates this season. We are still taking bookings.”