Indian Wedding Glossary
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The plain-English meaning of the wedding logistics terms that get thrown around on the planning group — welcome hamper, hospitality desk, rooming list. Written for the people who actually run the wedding: event managers, hosts, and families. Every entry answers the question in the first line, then explains how it works at an Indian wedding.
Guest logistics
Welcome Hamper
A welcome hamper is a curated gift box handed to out-of-town wedding guests when they arrive — usually at hotel check-in or waiting in their room. It carries the function schedule, local essentials, snacks, and a personal note, and at Indian destination weddings it doubles as the guest’s logistics pack for the next few days.
Hospitality Desk
A hospitality desk is the staffed help counter set up for a wedding’s guests — usually in the host hotel lobby or at the venue entrance — where guests check in, collect room keys and welcome hampers, get their function schedule and transport timings, and find answers. It is the single point of contact for guest logistics across a multi-day Indian wedding.
Rooming List
A rooming list is the master sheet that maps every wedding guest to a specific hotel room — with check-in and check-out dates, room type, who is sharing, and any special needs. It is how a planner turns a block of booked rooms into “Mr and Mrs Shah are in Room 412, Friday to Sunday,” and it drives check-in, welcome-hamper drops, and billing.
Guest Itinerary Card
A guest itinerary card is the function-by-function schedule handed to guests at a multi-day wedding — usually the card tucked into the welcome hamper. It lists each event (mehndi, haldi, sangeet, ceremony, reception) with date, time, venue and dress code, so guests know where to be without asking. It is the guest-facing cousin of the planner’s run sheet.
Return Gift
A return gift is the keepsake or favour given to guests as a thank-you for attending a wedding — handed out as they leave a function or couriered afterwards. In Indian weddings it ranges from a box of mithai or dry fruits to silver coins, potli pouches, brass diyas or curated hampers, and it carries real weight as a gesture of shagun.
Welcome Dinner
A welcome dinner is the relaxed meal that opens a multi-day wedding — held the evening guests arrive, before the formal functions begin. It lets travelling guests settle in, meet both families, and break the ice over food. At Indian weddings it often blends into or precedes the mehndi or sangeet.
Room Block
A room block is a set of hotel rooms a family reserves at a negotiated group rate so wedding guests can book within a shared price and date window. Indian weddings often hold blocks across two or three hotels, with a cut-off date after which unsold rooms are released and the names that did book become the rooming list.
Guest Transport
Guest transport is the coordinated movement of wedding guests — airport and station pickups, hotel-to-venue shuttles, and the fleet that ferries everyone between functions. At Indian weddings it is run by a transport desk or the planner, who matches staggered arrivals to vehicles and keeps every guest on time for each ceremony.
Planning & timeline
Wedding Run Sheet
A wedding run sheet — also called a run of show — is the minute-by-minute master schedule the planning team and vendors work from on the day. It lists every moment from baraat to vidaai with the time, the activity, and who is responsible. It is the crew document that keeps a multi-event Indian wedding on time, and guests never see it.
Seating Chart
A seating chart is the plan that assigns each guest to a specific table — and sometimes a specific seat — at a reception or seated dinner. At Indian weddings it is most common for plated receptions and intimate dinners; the large buffet-and-mingle functions usually run on open seating instead, which is why many families never make a formal chart at all.
Floor Plan
A floor plan is the scaled map of how a wedding venue is laid out — where the stage or mandap, dining, dance floor, entry, bars and food counters all sit. It is the plan that decides guest flow and capacity, and at Indian weddings it changes function to function as the same lawn or banquet hall is re-set for haldi, sangeet and the ceremony.
Banquet Event Order (BEO)
A banquet event order, or BEO, is the venue or hotel’s master specification sheet for a single function — listing the timings, menu, guest count (covers), room setup, AV and billing for that event. It is the document the family, the planner and the venue all sign off, so everyone is working from one agreed brief rather than scattered WhatsApp messages.
Wet-Weather Plan
A wet-weather plan is the pre-agreed backup for an outdoor wedding function if rain or extreme heat hits — the alternate indoor space, the tenting and cooling, and the cut-off time by which the call to switch must be made. In India it covers both monsoon downpours and the very real risk of a 44°C afternoon haldi.
Vendor Call Sheet
A vendor call sheet is the single document listing every wedding vendor — caterer, decorator, photographer, DJ, makeup, pandit and more — with their contact number, arrival or call time, and what they are responsible for delivering that day. It is the planner’s phone-book-plus-schedule that keeps thirty-odd suppliers arriving in the right order and reachable when something slips.
Roles & vendors
Day-of Coordinator
A day-of coordinator is the person who takes over execution on the wedding day itself — running the timeline, briefing and chasing vendors, and solving problems on the spot — so the host family and the lead planner do not have to. They do not plan the wedding from scratch; they own the last 48 hours and make the plan actually happen.
Wedding Coordinator
A wedding coordinator manages the logistics and execution of a wedding — vendor coordination, timelines, on-ground problem-solving — usually under a plan and budget set by the family or a planner. They are the operations layer: less about creative vision, more about making sure everything happens on time and in the right place.
Guest Relations Manager
A guest relations manager (GRM) owns the guest experience across a multi-day wedding — running the hospitality desk, handling check-ins, rooming, transport, queries and VIP care. They are the family’s proxy for "make every guest feel looked after," and they lead the hospitality team that does the actual legwork.
Master of Ceremonies (MC)
A master of ceremonies (MC), or anchor, runs the stage at a wedding — making announcements, introducing performances, keeping energy up, and steering the flow of the sangeet and reception against the run sheet. They are the voice that holds a function together so it never sags into awkward silence or chaos.
Pandit
A pandit (also purohit or pujari) is the Hindu priest who conducts the wedding rites — reciting the mantras, lighting the sacred fire, and guiding the couple through the kanyadaan, pheras and other rituals. They are also the keeper of the muhurat, the astrologically chosen auspicious window the core ceremony must fall within.
Halwai
A halwai is the traditional Indian wedding cook — a master of mithai, fried snacks and regional dishes who cooks fresh on-site, often at live counters. Historically the halwai and his team fed the entire baraat and wedding; today they coexist with modern banquet caterers, and many weddings hire both.
Sangeet Choreographer
A sangeet choreographer plans, teaches and rehearses the family dance performances for the sangeet — choosing songs, designing routines for each group, running rehearsals over several weeks, and managing the running order on the night. They turn nervous relatives who cannot dance into a sequence the whole family is proud of.
Gifting & money
Shagun
Shagun is an auspicious gift — usually cash, sometimes a token like a coconut, dry fruits or jewellery — given at Indian weddings and ceremonies as a blessing rather than a transaction. The defining custom is the lucky **+1**: amounts end in a one (₹101, ₹501, ₹2,501) so the gift can never be a round, "complete" figure that signals an ending.
Neg
Neg refers to the playful customs in which one side of an Indian wedding light-heartedly demands money or gifts from the other — most famously **joota chhupai**, where the bride’s sisters hide the groom’s shoes and refuse to return them until they are paid. Neg is bargaining as ritual: good-natured, expected, and built into the day to bond the two families through laughter.
Lifafa
A lifafa is the envelope used to give cash at Indian weddings and ceremonies — the wrapper for shagun. It is rarely plain: most are decorated with gold foil, Ganesha or "Shubh Vivah" motifs, and the cash inside almost always ends in a 1 (₹501, ₹1,101) to keep the auspicious +1. Handing money in a lifafa, rather than loose, is the polite default.
Trousseau
A trousseau is the curated collection of clothes, jewellery, accessories and personal items a bride takes with her into married life. Traditionally assembled by the bride’s family over months, it is meant to set her up for her new home — outfits for every occasion, daily wear, and keepsakes — and is the bride’s own to keep and use.
Streedhan
Streedhan is the property and gifts a woman receives over her lifetime — before, during and after marriage — that are **legally and absolutely her own**. It includes wedding jewellery, cash, gifts from both families, and her trousseau. Crucially, streedhan is the bride’s own wealth, given freely to her; it is **not dowry**, which is a coercive demand and illegal in India.
Wedding Registry
A wedding registry is a curated list of gifts a couple wants, shared with guests so they can pick something the couple will actually use and avoid duplicates. Common in the West, it is still uncommon in India — where cash shagun is the default — but growing among urban couples, often blended with cash funds for a honeymoon or home.
Ceremonies & rituals
Haldi Ceremony
Haldi is a pre-wedding ritual in which a paste of turmeric, sandalwood and oil is smeared on the bride and groom by close family — a blessing meant to brighten the skin, ward off the evil eye and mark the start of the wedding proper. It is held separately at each home, usually the morning of or the day before the wedding, and guests famously wear yellow.
Mehndi Ceremony
Mehndi is a pre-wedding celebration where intricate henna designs are applied to the bride’s hands and feet — and usually to female guests too — accompanied by music, food and dancing. The bride’s mehndi is the most elaborate and can take four to six hours; tradition says the darker the stain, the deeper the love and the more her in-laws will dote on her.
Sangeet
The sangeet is the pre-wedding night of music, dance and performance where both families take the stage — choreographed group dances, couple sequences, song medleys and roasts — usually held one or two days before the wedding. Unlike a welcome dinner, it is a structured show with a running order, often rehearsed for weeks under a choreographer.
Baraat
The baraat is the groom’s festive procession to the wedding venue, where he travels — traditionally on a decorated white mare, increasingly in a luxury or vintage car — surrounded by his family and friends dancing to a dhol and band. It announces his arrival, can take 30 to 90 minutes to cover a short distance because everyone stops to dance, and ends with the bride’s family receiving the party at the gate.
Varmala (Jaimala)
The varmala — also called jaimala — is the moment the bride and groom exchange flower garlands on stage, their first ritual act as a couple in front of the gathering. It signals mutual acceptance and the start of the wedding, and is famous for the playful tussle where each side lifts their own person to stop the other from garlanding first.
Pheras (Saat Phere)
The pheras are the seven rounds the bride and groom walk around the sacred fire (agni), the ritual heart of a Hindu wedding that makes the marriage complete. Each round, recited by the pandit, carries a specific vow — for nourishment, strength, prosperity, family, and lifelong companionship. The agni is the divine witness, and after the seventh round the couple is considered married.
Kanyadaan
Kanyadaan is the ritual in a Hindu wedding where the bride’s parents formally give her hand to the groom, placing it in his as a sacred offering before the pheras. Traditionally regarded as one of the highest acts of giving a parent can perform, it is performed by the father (and increasingly the mother too) at the mandap, with the pandit reciting the accompanying mantras.
Vidaai
Vidaai is the emotional farewell when the bride leaves her parental home for her husband’s, performed at the very end of the wedding once the pheras are complete. As she goes, she throws fistfuls of rice over her shoulder back toward her parents — a wish that the home she leaves stays prosperous. It is the most tearful moment of an Indian wedding and, for the bride’s family, the true close of the day.
Roka
Roka is the first formal step that confirms a marriage match — the families publicly "stop" the search for any other alliance, which is exactly what the word means. It is usually small and intimate, with the two families exchanging sweets, shagun and gifts, and no rings are involved. It marks intent, not the wedding date, and typically happens months before the engagement and wedding.
Sagai (Engagement)
Sagai is the engagement — the formal betrothal where the couple exchange rings in front of both families. It comes after the roka and before the wedding, and is usually a larger, more festive event than the roka, with extended family, friends, decor and a meal. The ring exchange is the centrepiece, alongside gifts, sweets and blessings from elders.
Tilak
Tilak is a pre-wedding blessing ceremony in which the bride’s father or male relatives visit the groom, apply a tilak (a sacred mark) to his forehead, and present gifts — formally accepting him into the family. It is traditionally a men’s ceremony held at the groom’s home or city, and signals that the wedding is firmly on. In many families it carries the weight of a public commitment from the bride’s side.
Griha Pravesh
Griha pravesh is the ritual welcome of the bride into her new marital home, performed right after the vidaai when she arrives. She gently tips over a kalash (a pot filled with rice) at the threshold with her right foot, scattering the grain inward as a sign that she brings prosperity into the household. An aarti welcomes her, and she steps in right foot first. It is the first thing the bride does as a member of her husband’s family.
Mandap
A mandap is the four-pillared canopy or raised altar where the main Hindu wedding rites are performed — the kanyadaan, the pheras and the sacred fire all happen here. The four pillars traditionally represent the four parents (or the four pillars of married life), and the central fire (agni) is the witness to the marriage. The couple, the pandit and immediate family sit inside it through the ceremony.
By Mayank JaiswalLast updated