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Dubai tops as world’s No 1 wedding destination

International bridal boutique Mary Trufel seeks to tap into Middle East’s booming wedding industry

Dubai has emerged at the top as the wedding destination of choice globally with the market in the Middle East estimated to be worth $4.5 billion and the UAE favoured as the location of choice attributed to its world-class infrastructure, award-winning cuisine and luxury bespoke services.

Positioning itself as the hub where bespoke wedding requests are available — wedding planners, hotel and resorts, as well event and bridal specialists are seeking to tap into the recent surge in Dubai’s wedding sector. Including Mary Trufel a first of its kind bridal boutique that have brought over their unique “fairytale shopping experience” to Dubai with the opening of it’s first branch in the region at City Walk. It is found in 2013 by Alexandra Meteleva and Natalia Platonova and with 12 exisitng bridal boutiques across Europe.

Meteleva comments: “Emerging trends in Dubai’s wedding scene reflects a dynamic shift towards personalised experiences and ability to cater to the most bespoke requests, at Mary Trufel we were born out of our desire to do just that, one of the most important, emotional and beautiful moments a woman can experience in her life we developed a special “fairytale shopping experience” training standard to ensure a 360 experience for brides to be. Well versed in cultural preferences our team of expert assistants go beyond just finding the right dress for location, the season and body shape but can also recommend jewellery to pair, make-up artists, photographers, performers, confectioners and other trusted specialists to create a memorable and highly personal wedding day.”

Tapping into Dubai’s booming wedding industry and coming from an extensive background in retail Alexandra and Natalia take extra care to present a curated collection of over 20 of the world’s most in demand bridal brands and will be adding iconic Vera Wang lines exclusively to Mary Trufel in Dubai before close of 2024.

Weddings remain a huge global industry worth $300 billion per year, according to IBISWorld Report.

Laila Suhail, CEO of Strategic Alliances and Partnerships Sector, Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism (DET), recently commented in response to the Dubai Wedding Symposium that took place in March 2024: “With the goal of becoming the world’s best city to visit, live and work in, aligned with the D33 Agenda launched by our visionary leadership, we must ensure that Dubai stays ahead of the curve for global wedding trends and create opportunities and memorable moments for all visitors. As part of our strategy for tapping into the potentially huge destination wedding market, we work closely with industry partners and stakeholders to ensure they build on the city’s diverse destination proposition by developing tailored offerings for weddings. With a focus on driving growth in the tourism sector, we will continue to leverage Dubai’s position as a leading hub for destination weddings.”