The wedding feast

After the ceremony comes the feast, the center of many weddings. It may be a sit-down banquet, a long buffet, a roast on a mat, or a table of small dishes. It is where the families celebrate together and where the toast, the cake and the first shared bite take place.

Order and honour

Seating is a message: the head table in the West, the stage in India where the couple receive guests, the separate men's and women's halls in many Muslim and Orthodox Jewish weddings. In Georgia the tamada leads toasts in a set order. In China the couple tours the tables with a drink, and in Ethiopia the couple feed each other in a gesture called gursha.

What is served

Menus carry meaning. A whole fish for abundance in China, a roast lamb in the Gulf, sugared almonds in Italy, jollof rice in Nigeria and Ghana, biryani in India and Pakistan, tagine and pastilla in Morocco, and a cake in Britain. Sweet dishes are especially common, from the Greek koufeta to the Persian sholeh zard.

What is changing

Food stations, plant-based menus and halal or kosher catering are growing, and many couples work with local cooks rather than chains. Some communities cap the guest list or the menu to control spending, as in a few Gulf and Indian states.