No fairy-tale ending for Kayangan Gallery yet

As the wedding and events industries sit in limbo, Kayangan Gallery strives to show that gatherings and celebrations can be safely executed amidst a pandemic

Wedding planner, designer, ‘cop’ – while Noor Hadi has been wearing the first two hats since 2012, she has taken up the third during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Noor is the co-founder and wedding designer of Kayangan Holdings, which runs Kayangan Gallery that provides event management and decoration services. In the past year, at the weddings she managed, Noor would shadow the bride and groom to ‘police’ the physical contact between the guests and the couple.

Touchy-feely relatives and friends were politely kept at bay from the bride and groom to minimise the risk of coronavirus infection. Other staff stationed around the hall reminded the guests to observe social distancing throughout the celebration. She explained that it was often difficult for the bride and groom to fend off excited guests trying to congratulate them with a hug. “But for some reason, when I was the one reminding the guests not to touch the couple, they were more inclined to follow my instructions. Perhaps it’s because I’m not related to them.”

Enforcing strict non-contact rules may seem drastic for what should be a joyous celebration, but these are drastic times. After all, the stakes have never been higher for event organisers like Noor.

Take the controversial wedding of Malaysian celebrity entrepreneur Neelofa when she tied the knot with religious preacher PU Riz in March this year. As pictures of guests sitting shoulder-to-shoulder and posing for photos without face masks went viral, the wedding planner was called in by the police for questioning. In August, another wedding planner was similarly quizzed by the authorities for flouting the rules and organising a wedding ceremony during a recent lockdown.

Besides the risks of attracting law enforcement’s attention, the more significant stake is that the wedding industry cannot afford more bad press. Since the advent of the pandemic in March 2020, the sector was often the first to be closed and among the last to open during a lockdown.

According to the Malaysian Association of Convention and Exhibition Organisers and Suppliers, over 1,250 business events in Malaysia were postponed or cancelled last year, culminating to a loss of RM1.75 billion. The wedding industry, estimated by the Association of Wedding Industry Malaysia (Awim) to be worth RM10 billion a year, took a major hit. It revealed that 30% to 35% of its members had to close down their businesses due to loss of income, worsened by the need to refund deposits for cancelled events.

Deferred dreams

The first movement control order (MCO), a semi-lockdown that limited citizens’ daily activities and movement to curb coronavirus infection, commenced in Malaysia on 18 March 2020. It shook Noor and her team – they were full steam ahead in preparing for a wedding due to happen in a week’s time.

“The client already paid 90% of the cost of the event. Thankfully, they did not ask for a refund – they understood that we had already done much work on the event. The couple decided to postpone it. They eventually got pregnant and even had kids. So they thought of turning the wedding into their child’s birthday party instead. But until today, we could not find a suitable next date to hold the event,” says Noor.

This is only one of the many backlogged events that Kayangan Gallery is grappling with. Noor explained that every postponed event incurs more cost. Future slots would have to be reserved for these events once the restrictions are lifted, limiting the team’s ability to take on more business.

With no end to the blocks on gatherings and congregations insight, it is difficult for businesses like Kayangan Gallery to plan their next move. The lockdowns have affected the logistical costs and supply of materials like fresh flowers, which is around three times pricier now compared to before. Large-sized props must be stored safely in warehouses, which equals more rental and overhead costs.

Noor says that this creates a “domino effect” – losing talents in the industry. The seemingly endless uncertainty has pushed some to leave the field for a new job, including a few of Kayangan Gallery’s staff, noted Noor. She added that she had cut her own salary by 90% to keep the company afloat, and eventually had to cut the staff salaries by 50%.
“Every wedding takes skills to organise. When these people leave, their expertise leaves with them. And it’s not easy to replace them. We lose their unique skills in floral arrangement, putting up the drapes, providing catering, printing invitation cards and so on,” she says.

Kayangan Gallery, sustained on both family and corporate events, saw its revenue plummet by 70% in the last year and a half.

“We did hold about 20 events in total. Most of them were smaller in scale compared to pre-pandemic years, while the few big events we did host complied with the SOP [standard operating procedure],” she explained.

Ready, set, wait

To survive the volatility of the pandemic, the company established its home and living e-commerce arm, Kayangan Living, in March 2021. This rides the demand for home décor and organisation items, as people invest in sprucing up the space that they are spending so much of time in.

According to Noor, home and living products seem like a natural route for diversification, as these products share the same source of suppliers and manufacturers as wedding decors, such as artificial plants, glassware and so on. But, as she discovered, running an e-commerce brand is nothing like managing an events business.

“Event management is rooted in services, which means you meet people face-to-face, and communicate with them. But a successful e-commerce business is about the effectiveness of systems and processes,” says Noor.

Despite having little experience in e-commerce, she and her staff gritted their teeth and made the plunge, learning as they go along. Now, the seven-month-old business is “on the way” to cover the income gaps from the event business, Noor says.

While Kayangan Living has helped the company tide over financially, Noor’s passion still lies in managing and designing weddings and events. She is eager to get back in the game.

Noor understands the importance of ensuring public safety by minimising infection risks. What she struggles to square with is that while events and weddings are still in stasis, dine-ins at eateries and cinema screenings are given the green light. To her, attending an event is not much different from eating in a restaurant or watching a movie in a cinema hall. If those businesses can be expected to follow SOP, Noor reasoned, event organisers should be held to the same standards.

She is cognizant of the controversial weddings that have made news for risky guest behaviours and conceded that weddings and events in certain venues, such as private homes or villages, may not be as rule-abiding. But solving that requires stepping up on enforcement, not punishing the rest of the event organisers and industry players toeing the line, she points out.

“I’m prepared to follow any SOP that the government imposes for the industry. Even if they want the police to make the rounds in my events every 20 minutes, that is fine too,” says Noor.

There is a saying: “love is contagious”. But a wedding does not have to be – and Noor is on standby for a chance to prove that.

By Li-Mei Foong
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