JEDDAH, 11 June 2005 — Owners of wedding halls are cashing in on the traditional summer boom in weddings. The rise in prices, which coincides with the summer vacation, has caused considerable resentment among Saudi bridegrooms who are already stretched financially by all the other costs surrounding the ceremony.
Khaled Al-Amoudi, a young Saudi, told Arab News that he had to pay SR35,000 just to reserve a wedding hall — the only one available for the day he planned his wedding. The amount does not include dinner expenses.
“The Jeddah Chamber should interfere and regulate these high prices because not many people can afford them,” he said.
Saleh Al-Oufi, from Madinah, said he intended to get married this summer. “I suffered a lot just to find a wedding hall. I was shocked at the high prices. It is very expensive to rent a normal wedding hall that does not include all the services.”
He attributes the increase in price to the large number of people wanting to get married and the few wedding halls available. He said that owners of wedding halls are taking advantage and increase their prices because there are no rules and laws to regulate their prices. He said that at the end, young Saudis are the victims because they would have to borrow money to rent these wedding halls.
Regulation of prices and expenses at weddings by government regulators would be new to Saudi Arabia but is common practice in India and Pakistan.
Osama Datar, an Indian businessman, said that government intervention to control expenses at weddings was a practice of long standing. “In a country with extremes of wealth and poverty, it is a good idea to limit how many people can be invited to a wedding,” he said.
He believed that conspicuous consumption could disturb many people. “By limiting the expenses at wedding, there is a chance that the money might find its way back into the economy for the common good,” he said.
Some young Saudis use imaginative alternatives to the traditional wedding hall. Salem Al-Harbi said that he had to rent a rest house because he cannot afford to rent a wedding hall. “The rest house is small, especially the female section. I had to cut down the number of people attending the wedding just to accommodate their number in the rest house.”
Muhammad Al-Daaboush, the owner of a wedding hall, told Arab News that the prices vary between wedding halls depending on the size, location and the time of the year. He said that calls for reservations started two months before the summer period.
“Most wedding halls took advantage of the slack time to renovate their wedding halls in competition to attract customers for summertime. The prices vary between wedding halls depending on the size and services provided.”
A five-star hall can hold more than 1,000 guests and is air-conditioned and fully equipped, then the price starts from SR20,000 and can rise to SR100,000. Three-star halls ranges from SR8,000 to SR15,000. Rest houses range between SR1,500 to SR5,000.
