How much does an Indian wedding cost in the UK in 2026?
A full breakdown of UK South Asian wedding costs in 2026 — venue, catering, photography, decor, outfits and the moments families forget to budget for.
The Baraat team9 May 20268 min read
If you're planning an Indian, Sikh or Pakistani wedding in the UK, the first question every family asks is the same: how much is this actually going to cost? The honest answer is that there is no single answer. A modest registry-and-reception combination can come in under £25,000. A three-day affair with a 500-guest reception at a Mayfair hotel will pass £250,000 before the photographer is paid.
What most online "budget calculators" get wrong is that they price an Indian wedding like a Western one — a single day with a dinner. A South Asian wedding is a programme. The cost stacks up across functions: Mehndi, Sangeet, ceremony, reception, sometimes a Pithi, sometimes a Walima the day after. Each function has its own venue, its own catering, sometimes its own decor.
This guide gives you a realistic 2026 picture, broken down by category, so you can build a budget that doesn't fall apart the first time you talk to a vendor.
The headline numbers
For a British Indian, Sikh or Pakistani wedding in 2026 with around 300 guests across two main events (one cultural function + one reception), most couples land between £60,000 and £120,000 all-in. Here's the broad split:
Venue and catering — 45–55% of the budget
Photography and videography — 8–12%
Decor, florals and mandap — 8–12%
Bride's outfits, jewellery and hair/makeup — 8–15%
Groom's outfits — 2–4%
Entertainment (DJ, dhol, live music) — 4–6%
Invitations, save-the-dates, stationery — 1–2%
Wedding cars, doli, transport — 1–3%
The "extras" — 5–10%
That last line is where families consistently underbudget. We'll come back to it.
Venue and catering
This is the biggest line item by far. UK Asian-friendly venues fall into roughly three tiers in 2026:
Banqueting halls (£60–£120 per head, all-in with food) — places like the Grand Sapphire in Croydon, the Parklands Quendon Hall in Essex, the Ramada Park Hall in Wolverhampton, or the Hilton Birmingham Metropole. These have in-house Indian catering teams, can handle 400–800 guests, and price food + venue together. Best value if you want predictability.
Hotel and country house venues (£140–£220 per head) — the Landmark London, the Grove, Cliveden House. Often require external Indian catering (which the venue lets you bring in for a fee), and you'll pay separately for venue hire (£8,000–£25,000) plus per-head catering.
Marquee and dry-hire venues (£180–£350 per head) — historic estates and London livery halls where you build the wedding from scratch. Eye-watering on paper but creates the most flexibility for non-standard layouts (mandap in the round, separate Mehndi tent).
For 2026, expect around £18,000 catering for 300 guests at a banqueting hall for one full event. Most couples have two-to-three catered events, which is why catering alone often runs £40,000–£70,000.
Hidden cost: VAT. The 20% VAT on a £40,000 catering bill is £8,000. Always check whether quotes are "plus VAT" or "inc VAT" — the difference is real money.
Photography and videography
Mid-range photographer + videographer combinations for South Asian weddings in the UK in 2026 sit around £3,500–£6,500 for a full-day single event, or £7,000–£14,000 for a multi-event package (Mehndi + ceremony + reception). Premium photographers known for diaspora weddings — Sundeep Sandhu, Rebecca Wedding, Cinematic Dreams — start at £8,000 and can pass £20,000 for the full programme.
You need both. Indian weddings are ritual-heavy and image-heavy, and one photographer cannot cover the baraat outside while the milni is happening at the door. Most premium packages include two photographers and a videographer; budget packages include one of each.
If you have to cut here, cut the second event's videography before you cut the ceremony's videography. The vows and the pheras are the part you'll watch on your tenth anniversary.
Decor, florals and the mandap
Range is enormous. For 2026:
Modest mandap with two pillars and basic florals: £2,500–£4,000
Mid-range mandap with full floral canopy + aisle decor + sweetheart tables: £6,000–£12,000
Reception decor is usually a separate spend — backdrop, centrepieces, lighting, drape work. Add £3,000–£10,000 for that.
The biggest decor decision is whether you want a cohesive look across all events. If yes, hire one decorator and let them do everything. If you only care about the ceremony day, save by going simpler at the Sangeet and Mehndi.
Outfits and jewellery
For the bride:
Lehenga for the ceremony — £2,500–£12,000 for off-the-rack from designers like Frontier Raas, Kalki, Tarun Tahiliani; £15,000–£40,000+ for couture
Reception outfit — £1,500–£6,000
Mehndi / Sangeet outfits — £400–£1,500 each
Hair and makeup for the day — £400–£900 per event, plus trial
Jewellery — most British Indian families inherit or already own the heavy ceremony pieces; if buying new, plan £3,000–£15,000+
For the groom:
Sherwani for the ceremony — £600–£2,500
Reception suit or sherwani — £500–£1,500
Sehra, kalgi, mojaris — £200–£600
Total outfit spend across the programme typically lands at £10,000–£25,000 for the couple combined.
The DJ, dhol, dancers, sparkular
Entertainment is where Asian weddings start to feel different from Western ones. Plan for:
DJ with sound + uplighting for ceremony and reception: £1,200–£2,800
Dhol players (typically two): £300–£600 for the baraat + milni; same again if you want them at the reception
Live singer or band for the Sangeet: £1,500–£6,000
Sparkular machines for the bride and groom entrance: £400–£900
Choreographer for family dance routines: £600–£1,500
A premium addition that's quietly become standard: an MC who speaks both English and the family's mother tongue, £400–£900 for the evening.
Cars, doli, baraat horse
The groom's baraat arrival often involves a horse (£600–£1,200) or a vintage car (£500–£1,000). The bride's doli departure car is normally the venue's executive car or one of the Phantoms / Bentleys hired for the day (£800–£2,000). Add a fleet of three or four chauffeured cars to ferry parents and key guests, and you're at £2,500–£5,000 for transport.
Invitations and stationery
Modern UK Asian couples typically split:
Digital save-the-dates and invites for the wider guest list: £200–£800 (templates, custom design, sometimes via Baraat itself)
Printed cards for close family — the elders who would be offended by a digital invite: £600–£2,500 for around 60–100 envelopes
If you want printed cards for the entire guest list, double or triple that.
The "extras" — where families consistently overspend
This is the line that ruins budgets:
Welcome bags / hampers for out-of-town guests: £15–£40 per bag × 80 guests = £1,200–£3,200
Chocolate / mithai favours for every guest: £2–£6 × 300 = £600–£1,800
Late-night street food vans at the reception (chaat van, kulfi cart): £600–£1,500
Fireworks or sparkular finale: £1,500–£4,000
Photo booth / 360 spinner: £600–£1,200
Children's entertainment (a separate room with games, supervised): £400–£1,000
Drone photography for the baraat: £400–£900
Wedding website + custom domain: £100–£400
Add this category up and you're often at £8,000–£15,000 you didn't plan for.
Tips, tributes, gifts to officiants and family
Indian weddings include lots of small monetary gifts — shagun envelopes for the priest (£101–£501), the dhol players (£100), the family barber, the venue manager who looked after your mother. Easy to spend £500–£1,500 across the programme. Worth budgeting £1,000 just for this category.
What couples regret cutting
Talking to couples a year on, the spends people regret cutting:
Videography — photos sit on Instagram, but the video is what gets watched at anniversaries
A second photographer at the ceremony — the baraat and the milni happen simultaneously
The MC — couples who tried to run the reception themselves wished they hadn't
A planner / coordinator for the day-of — even £1,500 for a competent day-of coordinator pays for itself in saved family arguments
What couples regret not cutting:
Over-the-top decor at the Mehndi — guests barely register it, the photographer barely uses it
Five different DJs across the events — one good DJ handles the whole programme cheaper
Excess mithai favours — most go uneaten
A premium mandap if the ceremony is short and small — match the spend to the visibility
Putting it together: three sample 2026 budgets
Modest (£40,000–£60,000) — registry + one main reception, 250 guests, banqueting hall venue:
Venue + catering: £25,000
Photo + video: £4,000
Decor: £3,000
Outfits: £8,000
Entertainment: £2,000
Stationery + extras: £3,000
Standard (£70,000–£110,000) — Mehndi, ceremony, reception, 300 guests, hotel venue:
Venue + catering across two days: £55,000
Photo + video: £8,000
Decor + mandap: £9,000
Outfits: £14,000
Entertainment: £4,500
Cars + transport: £2,500
Stationery + extras: £6,000
Premium (£140,000+) — full programme, 400 guests, country house with marquee:
Venue + catering: £80,000
Photo + video: £14,000
Decor + mandap + reception decor: £25,000
Outfits + jewellery: £25,000
Entertainment: £8,000
Cars + transport: £4,000
Extras + tips: £10,000
Where Baraat helps
This is the kind of thing the Baraat budget tracker is built for — categories tailored to South Asian weddings, allocations across multiple events, and warnings when one category starts to creep. You can also shortlist vendors by city and price tier, so you're not asking a £25,000-mandap decorator to quote you when your decor budget is £6,000.
A wedding is an investment in the family for the rest of your lives. Spend the time on the budget upfront — three honest hours building it now will save thirty hours of arguments later.
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