Food & culture · 3 min read ·
The Food of a Pakistani Wedding
What's served at a Pakistani wedding: the mehndi, baraat and walima menus, the dishes that appear at almost every shaadi, and why wedding biryani and qorma taste the way they do.
A Pakistani wedding is several days of celebration, and food is at the heart of every one of them. Hundreds of guests, huge copper degs of biryani and qorma, desserts by the trayful and chai served late into the night: wedding food has its own character, and many dishes taste a little different from the home versions, cooked in quantity by professional cooks.
The main events
Most Pakistani weddings have three major functions, each with its own feel and, traditionally, its own food.
Mehndi (or mayun). The colourful, music-filled pre-wedding night, usually hosted by the bride’s family. The food is often more relaxed: BBQ like chicken tikka and seekh kebabs, chaat stalls, live counters for paratha rolls or gol gappay, and plenty of cold drinks and mocktails.
Baraat. The wedding day itself, hosted by the bride’s family, when the groom’s party arrives. The menu is formal: biryani or pulao, a qorma, naan, salad, raita and desserts.
Walima. The reception hosted by the groom’s family after the nikah, traditionally the most lavish meal. Menus often mirror the baraat, sometimes with an extra main dish or a BBQ section.
The dishes you’ll almost always see
Biryani or pulao. Every wedding has a rice dish. Karachi weddings lean towards spicy chicken biryani; Punjabi and Pashtun weddings often serve mutton pulao.
Qorma. Mutton qorma or chicken qorma, rich with yogurt, fried onions and whole spices, glistening with oil, eaten with naan. Many people consider wedding qorma the best version they’ll ever eat.
Naan from the tandoor, often in huge baskets, refilled constantly.
Desserts. Zarda, sweet saffron rice with nuts and murabba; firni in small clay bowls; and, increasingly, gulab jamun, kheer, gajar halwa in winter, and trifles.
Kashmiri chai or qehwa to end the evening: pink Kashmiri chai with nuts in winter, green qehwa all year.
Why wedding food tastes different
Wedding food is cooked by professional cooks (bawarchis) in enormous degs over wood or gas fires. A few things make it distinctive:
- Scale: large quantities cook slowly and evenly, developing deep flavour.
- Generous fat: wedding qorma and biryani use far more oil and ghee than home cooking.
- Long dum: biryani degs are sealed and cooked on embers, sometimes with coals on the lid.
- Experience: a good bawarchi has made the same few dishes thousands of times.
Bringing wedding flavours home
You can’t easily cook for 500 at home, but you can borrow the wedding approach for a dawat: cook fewer dishes, cook them slowly, be generous with and whole spices, and give your biryani a long, patient dum. Our guide to planning a dawat shows how to cook for 15–20 people, and our biryani vs pulao guide explains the two great wedding rice dishes.
The etiquette of the wedding table
Food at Pakistani weddings is traditionally served after the main ceremony, and the opening of the food is a moment everyone waits for. Hosts take pride in abundance; running out of food is considered a real embarrassment, which is why there’s always far more than anyone can eat, and why leftover biryani is often sent home with relatives at the end of the night.
