Venue and rooms
Hall or lawn rent, room nights for family who travel, and the charges that sit outside the banquet package.
Most families ask the cost question first and get a vague answer back. Here is how planner fees are structured, which parts of a wedding budget actually move, and what your quote should itemise before you pay any advance.
Two weddings with the same guest count can cost very differently, which is why no honest planner publishes a single figure. What you can know in advance is the structure: how the planner charges, which line items take the biggest share, and which decisions move the total up or down.
In most weddings, the venue and the catering together take the largest share of the budget. Décor and production come next, and they are the two lines families underestimate most often, because a stage that looks simple in a photograph may still need truss, lighting and a flower order placed days ahead. After that come photography, entertainment, hospitality for outstation family, transport, and the quiet costs nobody writes down: generator hours, overtime after the sound cut-off, storage, teardown and taxes.
The planner's own fee is usually the smallest line on the sheet. It is charged as a share of the wedding budget, as a flat fee against an agreed scope, or as a fixed fee for coordination on the function days. Each suits a different family. Once you know which model you are being quoted on, comparing two proposals stops being guesswork.
Ask for these on every proposal you compare, ours included.
Which functions are covered, which are not, and what counts as an extra you will be billed for later.
Every quote is built on a number. Ask what changes if yours moves up or down before the date.
Mandap, stage, entrance and photo corners priced separately, not bundled under one word.
Sound, lights and LED quoted with setup, show and teardown hours, so overtime is never a surprise.
Advance, milestone payments and balance, each with a date and the booking it releases.
Taxes shown openly, plus a written list of what the quote does not cover.
Every photo here is from an event our team planned and ran.
Hall or lawn rent, room nights for family who travel, and the charges that sit outside the banquet package.
Charged per plate, so it moves with every guest you add. Menu, counters and service staff sit here.
Mandap, stage, entrance, tables and photo corners. Fresh flower rates move with the season and the date.
Truss, sound, lighting, LED and the crew hours needed to build, run and strike each setup.
Days, crew size, drone, same-day edits and album deliverables, each priced as its own line.
DJ, anchor, live music, dhol and performers, usually charged per function rather than per day.
Welcome kits, pick-ups, a help desk and meals between functions for family who stay through.
Transport, generator, permissions, storage, teardown and the coordinators on site each day.
Ask what a wedding costs and the honest answer is four questions back: how many guests, which date, how many functions, and what kind of venue. Those four decide most of the total. Everything below is the structure behind the number, so you can sanity-check any proposal you are sent, including ours.
Planners quote on one of three models, and the right one depends on how much of the work you are handing over. A share of the wedding budget is common for full planning, because the work grows with the scale of the wedding. A flat planning fee is agreed against a written scope: these functions, this much décor, these vendors, this many site visits. Coordination on the day is a fixed fee for taking over a wedding you have already planned and running it.
| Fee model | How it is charged | Suits you if | Ask about |
|---|---|---|---|
| Share of the budget | A proportion of total spend, billed in stages | You want full planning and the budget is still forming | What is counted in the base, and whether it is capped if the budget grows |
| Flat planning fee | One agreed fee against a written scope | Your functions and guest count are already settled | What falls outside the scope and how those extras are billed |
| Day-of coordination | A fixed fee for the final weeks and the function days | The family has planned it and wants someone to run it | How many coordinators come, on which days, and for how many hours |
| Décor only | Quoted per mandap, stage or entrance | You need setups, not planning | Whether labour, setup and teardown are inside the price or added after |
Ask which model you are being quoted on, in one line, at the top of the proposal. Two quotes only become comparable once you know what each fee covers. Our wedding planner packages page shows how scope is usually grouped.
If you want to move the total, move the guest list. Nothing else comes close. Catering is charged per plate, and it is per plate at every function, not just the reception. Add a hundred names and, across four functions, you have added four hundred meals. Guests also decide the venue you need, the rooms for family who travel, the chairs, the service staff, the shuttle vehicles, the welcome kits and the length of the buffet line.
Décor barely notices the difference. A mandap for a small wedding and a mandap for a large one cost roughly the same, because you are paying for the structure, the flowers and the crew hours, not for the audience. So when a budget will not fit, look at the list first and the flowers last. Sit down with both families, mark every name must, should or maybe, and take one honest pass through the maybes. It is an uncomfortable hour and it saves more than any amount of bargaining.
These are the decisions that change a wedding budget most, roughly in the order they bite.
The easiest saving available to most families is the date, and it costs nothing in quality. Peak wedding season here runs from November to February, and the auspicious dates inside it go first, often six to nine months ahead. Shift by a few weeks, or to a weekday, and a venue that had no dates suddenly has options, usually on friendlier terms, because the hall would otherwise sit empty.
Area matters too. A lawn in Koregaon Park and a hall in Pimpri-Chinchwad will not quote the same rent for the same Saturday, and the difference in guest travel time is often smaller than the difference in rent. Flowers follow their own calendar: rates climb around festivals and around the heavy wedding dates, which is exactly when most weddings want them. If your date is fixed and peak, ask for décor designed around what is in season that week rather than around one flower you saw in a photograph.
A quote should read like a list of things, not a paragraph of promises. Before any advance leaves your account, check that it names the guest count the pricing assumes and what happens if that number moves; every décor element on its own line; setup, show and teardown hours for sound and lights; how many coordinators will be on site and on which days; taxes; the payment schedule with dates; and a written list of what is not included.
That last list is where most disputes begin. Generator fuel, extra hours past the venue's cut-off, society or police permissions, vendor meals, storage, transport to a second venue, and flowers added on the morning are all normal costs. They only hurt when they are unlisted. Ask for the exclusions in writing with every proposal, and keep a contingency line of your own from the first week.
Savings that guests never notice are almost always structural rather than cosmetic.
These are the choices we work through with families every season. If your number is tight, read our notes on budget wedding planning in Pune first, then send us your date and we will put an itemised sheet in front of you.
Can't find yours? Call or WhatsApp — a planner answers.
There is no single figure, because the cost is built from your wedding rather than from a price list. What drives it: the number of functions, the guest count, the venue type, how much décor and production each function needs, the date and season, and whether guest travel and stay are included. Share those details and we will send an itemised quote.
Both models are used, and a third exists for coordination on the day. A share of the budget suits full planning where the scope is still forming. A flat fee suits a settled scope, so your functions and guest count should be fixed first. Day-of coordination is a fixed fee for running a wedding you planned yourself. Ask which model a quote uses before comparing it.
It usually pays for itself on the larger lines. A planner books the same vendors you would call, catches double bookings, keeps décor and production sized to the space instead of over-ordered, and stops last-minute charges appearing on the day. The fee is real and should sit openly on the sheet. What it buys is one accountable person and a budget that holds to the end.
Venue and catering, almost always, and together they can outweigh everything else on the sheet. Décor and production come next. Photography, entertainment, hospitality, transport and crew make up the rest. Because catering is charged per plate at every function, the guest list quietly controls the largest line, which is why planners ask for that number before anything else.
Yes, keep a contingency line in your sheet from the first week. It gets used for real things: extra plates when more guests arrive than confirmed, overtime when a function runs late, generator fuel, an extra room, flowers ordered on the morning, or a vendor replaced at short notice. A wedding with no buffer forces bad decisions in the last week.
Usually yes, and it is the easiest saving there is. Outside November to February, and on any day other than a Saturday, venues have empty dates and price accordingly, vendors have fewer competing bookings, and flower rates are calmer away from festival weeks. You also get more attention from everyone you hire. If the muhurat allows flexibility, ask for quotes on two dates.
The costs that appear on the day. Commonly excluded: taxes, generator fuel and extra power, overtime past the venue's cut-off, permissions, vendor meals, storage, transport between two venues, and any décor added after the design was signed. None of these are unfair; they only hurt when they are unlisted. Ask for a written exclusions list with every proposal.
In stages, tied to bookings rather than to dates picked at random. An advance confirms the planning and holds your date. Further payments follow as each vendor is booked, since venues, caterers and décor teams take their own advances. The balance is settled close to the wedding. Ask for the schedule in writing, with what each payment releases.
Haldi · Mehendi · Sangeet · Pheras · Reception
Pune · PCMCSend your date, get an itemised sheet
Tell us your functions, guest count and the area you are looking at, and we will come back with a line-by-line estimate and the questions we would put to a venue on your behalf.