Wedding Event Planning Checklist: Venue, Food, Rooms, and Guest Comfort

Planning a wedding is one of the most detail-heavy projects a family takes on together. Whether you are coordinating an intimate 60-person ceremony or a multi-day celebration for 300 guests, the checklist never seems to get shorter. In our experience working with wedding couples across Maharashtra, the difference between a chaotic function and a seamless one almost always comes down to one decision: choosing a venue that handles more than just the hall. Solid wedding event planning starts with a location built to support every pillar of your event.

Picking the Right Wedding Venue: More Than Just Aesthetics

Most couples spend their early planning energy on decor and outfits. The venue conversation, strangely, gets pushed back. But the wedding venue you pick will dictate almost every other decision that follows — your food setup, guest accommodation, ceremony flow, and even your photography backdrops.

At Hotel Irada, a 66-acre working winery estate near Pune, weddings unfold across a landscape unlike anything else in the region. Set on what was once Vijay Mallya’s private estate, our property is cradled by 4,000 acres of reserve forest. Most couples who walk the grounds for the first time say the same thing: “We didn’t know a place like this exists so close to Pune.”

What to Look for in an Event Venue Before Signing

Before committing to any event venue, run through these checkpoints:

• Does it offer both indoor and outdoor ceremony zones, with a backup plan for weather?
• Is the property self-contained, meaning accommodation, dining, and event spaces are all on-site?
• Can the kitchen manage a large-scale, multi-cuisine wedding function setup?
• Is there a dedicated event coordinator, or will you be chasing external vendors yourself?
• What is the parking and vehicle access situation for outstation guests?

A venue that ticks all of these reduces coordination headaches dramatically. Couples who choose a destination estate model spend far less time managing logistics and far more time actually being present at their own celebrations.

Ceremony Zones and Layout at a Destination Estate

At Hotel Irada, a wedding function can be spread across multiple distinct ceremony zones. Couples have exchanged vows between vineyard rows, hosted sangeet nights under the valley moon, and held haldi ceremonies by the pool framed by climbing roses. Each space has its own visual identity, so your mehendi looks nothing like your reception — even within the same estate.

This kind of spatial variety is something a standalone banquet hall simply cannot offer. For multi-day wedding event planning, having different zones for each function creates a natural sense of progression that guests genuinely feel.

Wedding Event Planning for Food and Dining

After the venue, food is the single most discussed element of any Indian wedding. Guests may forget the exact shade of the floral arrangements, but they will remember whether the biryani was hot and whether the live chaat counter had a long queue. Getting food right requires planning well beyond finalizing a menu.

Structuring Your Wedding Menu for a Multi-Day Function

A multi-day wedding typically spans three to five functions, and each one has its own food character. A haldi morning calls for light snacks and chilled nimbu pani. An evening sangeet demands a heavier spread with live counters. The reception wants a formal sit-down option running alongside a buffet.

At Hotel Irada, our culinary team works closely with wedding couples to build custom menus for each event of the celebration. Our kitchen powers ROSSO, our Italian-inspired restaurant, and the Irada Pool Club all-day dining — giving us the range to manage vastly different food profiles across the same weekend. We’ve handled everything from a Maharashtrian traditional thali for 200 guests to a curated wine-paired private dinner for 40 family members the morning after the wedding.

One practical tip from our planning team: always confirm dietary requirements for outstation guests at least two weeks in advance. We’ve seen last-minute Jain and gluten-free requests create real pressure on kitchen teams at other venues. At Irada, we build this flexibility into the brief from day one.

Beverage Planning and Bar Setup

Indian weddings have become significantly more beverage-forward over the last five years. Couples are moving beyond the standard open bar and opting for cocktail menus, wine pairings with dinner, and signature wedding drinks. Since Hotel Irada is a working winery with its own estate wine list, many couples now incorporate a vineyard tasting session as a pre-function activity for the groom’s family or the bridal party.

Lola by the Pool, our cocktail bar, is a popular choice for informal evening gatherings and post-function nightcaps. Planning your beverage stations in advance and mapping them to specific spaces prevents the crowd bottleneck that typically forms around a single central bar.

Guest Room Allocation and Accommodation Planning

One of the most underrated aspects of wedding event planning is coordinating room blocks. Couples who accommodate their entire family and wedding party on the same property have a fundamentally different experience from those who scatter guests across multiple hotels.

At Hotel Irada, accommodation spans Reserve Rooms, Gallery Rooms, Vineyard Suites, and The Collector’s Suite. No two rooms are designed alike, and all of them sit within walking distance of the event zones. This means elderly family members are not navigating shuttle logistics at midnight after the reception.

For larger guest lists, we work on a room-block model where a predefined set of rooms is held under the wedding booking. A sensible allocation most families follow:

Guest Category	Recommended Room Type
The Couple	Vineyard Suite or The Collector’s Suite
Parents and Siblings	Gallery Rooms
Outstation Family	Reserve Rooms
Wedding Party and Friends	Reserve Rooms

Confirming this breakdown at least six weeks before the function allows the team to prepare rooms in advance, arrange welcome touches, and ensure no one is walking into a generic hotel corridor on their first night.

Managing Guest Comfort Throughout the Function

When most planners talk about guest comfort, they immediately think of seating and food. Those matter, but the details guests actually notice tend to be smaller: adequate lighting at the venue entrance, accessible seating near the ceremony zone for elderly relatives, and whether the golf cart or shuttle service between event areas is running on time.

At an estate the size of Hotel Irada, the distance between accommodation wings and event spaces is part of the charm but does require active management. We run internal estate transport on wedding days to ensure guests at all mobility levels can move between functions comfortably. Our Nyāsa Wellbeing centre also offers morning yoga and spa therapies, which many families incorporate to help guests decompress between heavy function days.

The other frequently overlooked area is communication. A well-designed itinerary card placed in every guest room — listing function timings, dress codes, and a simple estate map — reduces the number of “what time is the sangeet?” calls that inevitably land on the bride or groom’s phone.

Frequently Asked Questions on Wedding Event Planning

Q1. How far in advance should we start wedding event planning? For a destination estate wedding near Pune, we recommend starting eight to twelve months ahead. This secures room blocks, vendor availability, and ceremony zones without last-minute pricing pressure.

Q2. Can a single venue host a multi-function wedding across several days? Yes, and in our experience it is the better model. A self-contained estate like Hotel Irada manages accommodation, dining, ceremony zones, and wellness under one roof, which simplifies everything.

Q3. How do we ensure food quality stays consistent across large wedding functions? Always choose venues with in-house kitchens over outsourced catering. In-house teams maintain standards across meal services, especially for multi-day events where the menu changes daily.

Q4. What is a good guest-to-room ratio when booking a wedding venue? A practical starting point is securing rooms for 40 to 50 percent of your guest list, prioritizing outstation guests and immediate family. Others can stay at nearby properties.

Q5. Is a vineyard or forest estate suitable for traditional Indian ceremonies like haldi and pheras? Absolutely. At Hotel Irada, we have hosted haldis, sangeets, baraats, and pheras — adapting each ceremony zone to the family’s specific ritual requirements and traditions.

Final Thoughts

Thoughtful wedding event planning is the difference between a function that looks good on paper and a wedding your guests talk about for years. The right wedding venue holds the entire experience together. At Hotel Irada, we bring 66 acres of vineyard and forest, purpose-designed ceremony spaces, a full-service culinary team, curated accommodation across multiple room categories, and a planning team that has seen what works and what does not. If you are exploring destination wedding venues near Pune, we would love to walk you through the estate. Reach us at Hotel irada or on WhatsApp at +91 70802 50472.