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Hahaha........Great to read everyone's fantastic memorable experiences...
Me and my family were at a wedding, and it was time for the main course. I think briyani was on the menu, as we were about to tuck in we noticed the waiter gave us tea spoons to enjoy our wonderful briyani!!!
Dont you just love weddings........
in the UK, every wedding ive been to has been a sit down affair during dinner. have never been to a buffet wedding in the uk, however, all these weddings, have never had waiters, rather close relatives of the bride or groom have been the ones to serve the food. i thought this was normal till i came to gupshup lol. these weddings have all been mirpuri ones though, so maybe its a mirpuri thing, but ive never been to a lavish wedding, one thats organised really well, all these years ive been missing out i see now:teary1:, pareezay feel free to invite me to your wedding,rest assured i wont bring any extra people lol.
omg weddings in pakistan, i went to one back early on in the year, it was my first wedding in pakistan after many years, so i wasnt sure what to expect. my father in law was friends with the bride’s father, so we went to their home (which is where they had the nikah)reaaaaally early. we were the very first to arrive, and had to sit around for about 5 hours waiting for food lol. omg never again.
they had a buffet. so me, my sass and sister in law, we got our food, and stood near the table as everyone else was doing and began eating and suddenly this old aunty (not that old really, early 50s perhaps)decided to do chrootee (wash her mouth with water)before eating first. she swilled the water in her mouth and then spat it out on the ground and some of it splashed onto my sister in law’s salwar 
we were like omg, and trying to move away from her but it was crowded. so we were trying to keep an eye on her whilst eating cos who knew what she would do next.
she begins eating her chawal, and after slaughtering the chicken in the chawal, threw the bones onto the floor, once again near my sis in law and me too this time. my sass said to her what are you doing? have some manners and the womn was like “ehehe” all fake sheepishly. sigh. it was an experience anyway lol.
at my own wedding the walimah was held in my in law’s home(in a village) and their next door relatives home. opposite their house is a school and this was used as the place for people to eat. it wasnt buffet style, tables were set up but loads of people just threw meat bones onto the ground whilst eating too:no:, many of the people invited were residents of the village, and i hate to say it, but i guess village people, many of them are pretty jahil folk. sigh.
Re: Lessons you have learnt from other weddings...
my friend was is mirpuri and got married in his villiage a year ago! he described a similar experience lol!
he is back their now he hasnt seen his wife in a whole year!
Re: Lessons you have learnt from other weddings…
and she did!
so what do u think guyz how bad my english is?:o 
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I've never been to a wedding where there's been a buffet, mehndis yes, but the shaadi and walima are always sit down affairs, with waiters and waitresses bringing out the platters and plates etc. There's normally one waiter assigned to each table and it their job to get you anything you ask for. It works really well, definetly cuts down the whole queue drama!
I've never been to a wedding where there's been a buffet, mehndis yes, but the shaadi and walima are always sit down affairs, with waiters and waitresses bringing out the platters and plates etc. There's normally one waiter assigned to each table and it their job to get you anything you ask for. It works really well, definetly cuts down the whole queue drama!
LOL
Kurri, my husband and I nearly started a riot by having the first-ever sitdown wedding dinner in his family--they had only done buffets before. Everyone in the family was complaining that they couldn't possibly select their main dish ahead of time, there wouldn't be enough food for anyone, etc.
Turned out the dinner was great, though, and everyone got more than enough to eat. I think we may have convinced them that sit-down dinners can be successful/enjoyable for a desi crowd.
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^ thats awesome!
in toronto too, sit-down wedding dinners are very rare.
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sit downs are the norm in the UK as most places do a package.
^ I really do prefer sit-down dinners. They seem more classy to me, and if you're looking to really feel pampered on the big day, nothing can match having table service. Especially when the bride and groom have their own table and own waiter! :)
Here in the US, buffets are pretty popular with most groups, including goray, and most places have a buffet option package. They are usually more budget-friendly, which is one big plus for couples who are watching costs very closely.
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^ see thats the interesting thing- all the venues i'm speaking to have told me that buffets and sitdown dinners work out to the same cost- i guess what happens is sit down dinners = more waitstaff, but buffets = more food than a 3-course sit-down meal. so it evens out?
Re: Lessons you have learnt from other weddings...
With my younger bro’s wedding in Pakistan, we thought we would try the whole sit-down arrangement for dinner. It worked really well! I’ve noticed a general mindset amongst some that the food will finish and they panic, so everyone seems to rush to the buffet and they pile mountain size servings onto their plates. Even when they’re finished, in most cases they can’t even finish half the food they brought back to the table and you see such wastage that it’s unbelievable. Most of us would think people with money/education would be above all this, but NO, they also succumb to this type of behaviour - it’s just amazing.
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i want to ask question for those who had got married in karachi or had attend any wedding
fot the sit-down arrangement for dinner...how do you do it... i mean to say for example, if you are booking a venue like PAF museum and if you have the sit down arrangements than how do you serve the food...i mean do you hire some waiters or the family do it by them selve
Re: Lessons you have learnt from other weddings...
the family definitely don't do it themselves. not with a wedding of pakistani scale- poor family!
you would hire waiters and speak to them about it beforehand, so they would pre-plate the food and bring it out for the guests. you would assign one waiter per 5 or 6 tables and they would periodically check on guests at those tables to make sure everyone had their drinks topped up and plates were taken away when they were finished so the next course can come out.
also, plated menu here means you get one serving and that's it. its a multi-course meal so you get your salad/appetizers, main course, and dessert. and you get choice in the RSVP card between two or three different meal choices, so guests per-pick their selection and you give final numbers of who is eating what (for eg. beef, chicken, or fish.) i'm not sure how that would work in pakistan.
zigs, how did you guys do it?
^ see thats the interesting thing- all the venues i'm speaking to have told me that buffets and sitdown dinners work out to the same cost- i guess what happens is sit down dinners = more waitstaff, but buffets = more food than a 3-course sit-down meal. so it evens out?
Hmmm, interesting. Yeah, I guess it makes sense that with a buffet they would have to prepare more food...
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^ We basically had to cater to our guests and what they were typically used to. Although we liked the idea of pre-arranged seating, it seemed that the idea would prove to be impractical. People over their didn’t understand the concept, so we left the guests to decide where they wanted to sit. The valima took place in a hotel and 5 to 6 waiters were assigned to each table, as per your suggestion. The food was basically served up on chinaware for each table as opposed to handing out individual servings to each guest. Each time a dish would fall empty on a table, the waiter would simply go refill. The cost was based on a buffet style dinner in that we were charged per head, so there was no shortage of food, but we agreed that the food would be served at the tables directly. Deserts were also brought out in the same manner to each of the tables. For the guests we were catering to, the whole arrangement proved to be pretty successful and best of all, no one had to queue!
^ We basically had to cater to our guests and what they were typically used to. Although we liked the idea of pre-arranged seating, it seemed that the idea would prove to be impractical. People over their didn’t understand the concept, so we left the guests to decide where they wanted to sit.
We did pre-arranged seating, and though there was a little bit of shuffling among the older generation, people adapted pretty nicely. We got HUGE kudos from the younger generation because they had asked us in advance to give all unmarried boys and girls each their own table (one boys table, one girls table) so they could enjoy each other's company and get out from under the gaze of the parents and aunties/uncles for a couple of hours.
My hubby's family tends to be **very **dominated by the older generation and their many sensitivities, etc., so at the wedding and after we've gently tried to introduce some new ideas and customs to make things a little more fun for the younger folk, and I think we've earned a lot of love as a result from them! :)
Re: Lessons you have learnt from other weddings...
i am so grateful that my guests were civilized, alhamdulillah.
phew!
^ We basically had to cater to our guests and what they were typically used to. Although we liked the idea of pre-arranged seating, it seemed that the idea would prove to be impractical. People over their didn’t understand the concept, so we left the guests to decide where they wanted to sit. The valima took place in a hotel and 5 to 6 waiters were assigned to each table, as per your suggestion. The food was basically served up on chinaware for each table as opposed to handing out individual servings to each guest. Each time a dish would fall empty on a table, the waiter would simply go refill. The cost was based on a buffet style dinner in that we were charged per head, so there was no shortage of food, but we agreed that the food would be served at the tables directly. Deserts were also brought out in the same manner to each of the tables. For the guests we were catering to, the whole arrangement proved to be pretty successful and best of all, no one had to queue!
had the same exact style on my Valima. Guests really appreciate it because it looks so organized and there isnt a chaotic (skipping auntie's) line.
i agree with all but esp the aisle problem and uninvited guests! no its not ok to bring ur foreign exchange student! god! and the kids running around and trying to sit on the stage...its like um no ur not ruining my pictures and ur mom is gonna pay for it if something happens to it. the problem is the moms not the kids. they are too busy checking each other out and backbiting to watch thier children..thats why i wrote no one under 10 allowed. people were pissed but i had no annoying kids running around and making a mess. so happy i did that.