Making wedding trays in Hai Duong makes a lot of money

The customer is willing to pay

To prepare for her engagement ceremony, Dang Quynh Nga on Nguyen Quy Tan Street and her boyfriend went to Royal Florist Wedding Trays (An Thai Street, Binh Han Ward, Hai Duong City). The amount of money is not too important to Nga and her boyfriend, as long as the wedding tray package meets the criteria: beautiful, elegant and luxurious.

After consulting, Quynh Nga and her boyfriend decided to choose a set of 9 gifts with white tones of lotus flowers and rattan trays. The gifts such as candy, wine, medicine... must all be of high quality. Quynh Nga's gift set costs 18 million VND.

This is not the highest price for the trays. Ms. Pham Thi P. in Le Thanh Nghi ward (Hai Duong city) is preparing for the wedding of her second son. Because she believes that marriage is a major event in life and her family is well-off, Ms. P. decided to spend more than 70 million VND for the 11-gift tray set. "I want the tray set to be eye-catching, polite, and for everyone to look at," Ms. P. said.

According to wedding tray shop owners, there are currently many types of trays for engagement, wedding, and engagement ceremonies. While engagement trays usually have 7, 9, or 11 gifts (each gift has one item including: betel and areca nuts, tea, tobacco, wine, cakes, candies, roast pig)... engagement and wedding trays only have 1 (mixed tray). The prices for the gift sets also vary. The most affordable price is from 7-8 million VND/set, while the higher price is from 10-13 million VND/set. "Normally, customers often order from 13-18 million VND/set. For customers who are meticulous and fussy, they may order higher," said Ms. Pham Thi Thu Huong, owner of the Hai Duong High-end Engagement Tray shop (Nguyen Trai Street, Hai Duong City).

Depending on the price and customer requirements, shop owners will flexibly change the gift sets. “With affordable prices, the method is simple, and the gifts are also common. With higher prices, the gifts must be high-quality Vietnamese products or imported goods,” said Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngoc, owner of Ngoc La Wedding Gift Shop (Nam Sach town).

"Shop owner" has a bumper crop

Wedding season usually starts in August, peaking from October to February (lunar calendar) every year. This is the time when wedding shop owners reap a bumper crop from their business.

Ms. Ngoc said that during peak months, she has to hire more workers to maximize revenue. There are months when she earns hundreds of millions of dong. Her customers are from many provinces and cities such as Hanoi, Hung Yen, Quang Ninh, etc.

During the wedding season, Ms. Thu Huong receives an average of 7 sets of gifts/week, earning a profit of 30-40 million VND/month. This is also the dream income of many people.

The income is good, but the job of making wedding trays also has a lot of pressure. During the wedding season, preparations must be done a week in advance. Ms. Thu Huong often has to wake up at 4 am to go to the wholesale market and personally choose the most beautiful flowers. "If you come a little late, there will be no more beautiful flowers to make for customers," Ms. Huong said. Similarly, betel and areca nuts are very expensive during the wedding season and are not beautiful, so she has to order them from Hai Phong to choose the green, fresh bunches of areca nuts with the roundest, largest, and most beautiful fruits.

Weddings and engagements often take place on weekends. Receiving many customers while still ensuring quality and progress is a big pressure for shop owners. “Usually, we will do it in batches, in stages. Dry goods such as tea, medicine, candy, etc. will be made first. Flowers, fresh fruits, baked goods, and wedding cakes will only be made one day before being delivered to customers,” said Ms. Luong Thi Lan Anh, owner of Royal Florist Wedding Trays. Also due to the pressure on progress and quantity, the tray makers often have to stay up two nights in a row on weekends to complete their work.

Talking about the incident in her profession, Ms. Lan Anh remembers most the time she rode her motorbike to the bride’s house to “put out the fire”. “That time, the team carrying the ceremony spilled and broke the wine tray. Although it was not my fault, doing this job requires dedication. Luckily, the bride’s family also lives in Hai Duong city, so I handled it promptly,” Ms. Lan Anh said. In addition, traffic jams, vehicle breakdowns, and not being able to deliver the ceremony on time, causing customers to constantly call, are also common risks in the profession.

The recent development of the gift-making profession has also created competitive pressure among professionals. To survive, gift-makers need to be skillful, creative, and produce quality products with beautiful forms. In gift-making sets, dragon and phoenix pairs are often difficult to make and require the highest level of technique, because they are combined with fresh fruit trays. In the past, dragons and phoenixes were made from sedge fiber cores, but now craftsmen have switched to foam cores for compactness and simplicity. “Cutting the core and creating the blanks are very important, determining the sophistication of the dragon and phoenix pairs. The rest depends on the skill of combining materials to make the product,” said Ms. Thu Huong. After creating the core, craftsmen will combine chili, pandan leaves, and some other accessories to create the shape of the dragon and phoenix. This is often the highlight of the entire gift-making set.

The remaining trays will be colored and decorated with flowers depending on the customer's preferences and requests. Therefore, each set of trays will have a different color tone or theme.

To meet customer needs, "shop owners" regularly learn, improve their skills, and go online to update new trends.