KUALA LUMPUR: A 26-year-old bride-to-be has been forced to postpone her big day not once, but twice due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Nurfarah Wahidah Hamzah, who was set to tie the knot this month was forced to postpone her marriage solemnisation (akad nikah) because of the latest round of movement restrictions enforced by the government to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Just as she was getting ready for her big day, cases began to spike and a two-week long Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) was imposed last Wednesday (Oct 14).
"It's kind of disappointing when we had to postpone it initially. Now we have to postpone it again."
She had planned to marry her fiance Syafiq Shapie in March, but due to concerns over Covid-19, her family felt it was best to move the date to June. That date then got pushed even further to October.
This has forced Nurfarah, who is an executive at an oil and gas company, to postpone her solemnisation ceremony at Masjid Meranti in Puchong, Selangor, which was slated for Oct 11.
"It's been very hectic. We had already set up tents for the kenduri (reception).
"Even our akad nikah papers are about to expire.
"We even contacted the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) to enquire if we could hold the akad nikah virtually on Oct 13, but Jais said that virtual akad nikah are closed for now," Nurfarah said.
Meanwhile, Nur Aishah Muhamad Shar, 23, an accounts assistant, said she was disappointed that her wedding plans did not go as expected.
"However, I held my marriage solemnisation earlier and that makes me feel relieved and thankful.
"Now, I just need to focus on my wedding reception. We've shifted the date for the ceremony."
The postponement of nuptials have also affected businesses as with the case of videographer and photographer, S. Sri Ganesh, 28, from Studio Twelve.
He said he has yet to recover from the impact of the first MCO, and the latest CMCO will surely affect him.
"Many of my customers gave advance payments, and then had to postpone their weddings. I suffered losses of nearly RM20,000. It is a massive loss for me since I started my business in 2010. I was caught off guard."
Some clients agreed to postpone their weddings to the year-end, but even those may not occur with the latest CMCO.
"Another problem is when my studio cannot accommodate couples on their new dates, due to previous bookings.
"I can't expect them to follow my schedule because there are other vendors involved in a wedding or reception. It wouldn't be right.
"I was forced to return their full deposits which I didn't have on hand. For a cameraman like me, my finances are on a rolling basis. So to even come up with RM4,000 is hard.
"Fortunately, two of the couples were kind enough to accept instalment payments," said Sri Ganesh.
He said that one of his clients postponed her wedding from May to tomorrow, but now sadly, could not carry on due to the CMCO in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya from Oct 14 to 27.
He added that during the MCO seven months ago, he incurred almost RM20,000 in losses due to wedding postponements and cancellations.