The wedding feast
The stage and the toasts: who is served first, what is shared, what is thrown or broken.
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.
Written by the EveryShaadi desk with AI assistance. Background on The wedding feast (stage of the wedding). Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.
🇲🇲 MyanmarMarriage in Myanmar
A blend of Buddhist rites, astrological timing, and family negotiations that defines union across Myanmar's diverse ethnRite · Finding a match
🇮🇱 Jerusalem, Israel and 3 moreJewish wedding
The ceremony and laws that bind a couple in Jewish marriage, from the canopy to the glass.Rite · Engagement and betrothal
🇮🇳 IndiaZoroastrian wedding
A Zoroastrian marriage ceremony featuring hand-fastening, rice sprinkling, and shared meals.Rite · Engagement and betrothal
🇺🇦 UkraineTraditional Ukrainian weddingТрадиційне українське весілля
A multi-day sequence of folk rites, bread baking and church vows that marks the transition from maidenhood to married liRite · Finding a match
🇮🇳 IndiaAyyavazhi wedding
The sacred rite of Ayyavazhi that treats marriage as a spiritual sacrament and family life as the highest austerity.Rite · Procession and arrival
🇮🇳 IndiaTelugu Hindu weddingతెలుగు వివాహ వేడుక
A multi-day Telugu Hindu marriage marked by seven vows around fire and family rituals.Rite · Finding a match
🇪🇬 Egypt and 5 moreArab weddingزفاف or فرح or عرس
A series of family-centered rites and processions that mark marriage across the Arab world.Rite · Finding a match
🇸🇿 EswatiniUmtsimbauntsimba
A multi-day Swazi wedding procession where the bride joins her husband's family through ritualised stages.Rite · Finding a match
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Umtsimba: Cat7624, CC0, source
- Marriage in Myanmar: Thant Zin Myint, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Jewish wedding: Jozef Israëls, Public domain, source
- Traditional Ukrainian wedding: Пимоненко, Николай Корнильевич, Public domain, source
- Ayyavazhi wedding: Vaikunda Raja, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Arab wedding: 13th century artist, Public domain, source