Dubai’s Galleries Lafayette: ‘I do’ to wedding industry

Galleries Lafayette, Dubai’s largest department store, has launched a standalone wedding section in a bid to break into the Gulf’s lucrative bridal market. The French retailer plans to sell everything from rings and dresses, to catering and honeymoon services, in an effort to become a one-stop-shop for customers planning a wedding.Rings will be priced from AED2,000 to AED50,000, while bridal dresses will range from AED5,000 and AED100,000, the store said. “The weddings market here is very strong, not just for locals but a lot of expats tend to have their weddings here,” said marketing manager Joana Chambel. “Dubai is a wedding destination, and there’s been an increase in the number of people choosing [it], particularly in the winter months.” Many of the Gulf states, including the UAE, have established marriage funds to aid young nationals in meeting the steep cost of financing weddings. In Oman, the prohibitively high cost of marriage played a role in the violent protests that rocked the sultanate earlier this year. Alongside calls for better pay and working conditions, Omanis wanted a state-backed fund to help young couples meet marriage costs. "More than half of Omani men earn, monthly, under OR700. It's impossible for them to finance their wedding,” legal advocate Mohammed Al Shahri, told Reuters. “Eventually they get themselves into a debt quagmire within the early years of a marriage [and] the majority of divorces occur due to underlying financial issues." According to Euromonitor International, the number of married couples in the UAE rose from 2.2 million in 2005 to 2.5 million in 2009. The number of married couples in the Gulf state is expected to reach 3.3 million in 2020, representing more than 57 percent of the population.