Banquet Event Order Template for Mehndi, Barat and Walima

One BEO per function, not one per family

Write a separate order for the mehndi, the barat and the walima, even when the same family books all three. The mehndi usually runs later and has a stage with swings and a dholki, the barat needs a clear route for the groom's arrival, and the walima is a lunch or early dinner hosted by the groom's side. Mixing them on one sheet is how a kitchen ends up plating biryani for the wrong day.

Give each order the booking reference, the name of the family contact for that function (it changes between barat and walima), and the name of your own duty manager.

What your banquet event order must show in Pakistan

Write the menu exactly as the law allows it

In Punjab the Marriage Functions Act 2016 limits wedding food served at a hall, marquee, hotel or hired private property to one salan, one rice dish, one salad, hot and cold drinks, roti, naan and one sweet dish. It applies to all marriage ceremonies, including mayun and mehndi, and it binds the venue and the caterer as well as the host. Fines run from Rs 50,000 to Rs 2 million.

So the BEO lists the one salan by name, the one rice dish, the sweet dish and the drinks, with quantities per 100 guests. If the family brings a second dish from home, the duty manager needs to know what to do, and the BEO is where you write your policy down.

Barat BEO, Lahore marquee

Saturday barat dinner for 450 expected guests (420 guaranteed) in a marquee in DHA Lahore, gates 7:00 pm, close 10:00 pm, partitioned seating.

• Final count due by 12:00 noon on Thursday.
• No fireworks or firing; security to escort out anyone who ignores this.
• Rukhsati by 9:40 pm; lights and sound off at 10:00 pm.
• Prices are illustrative for 2026.

Timings that work back from 10:00 pm

The Punjab Act requires the owner or manager of the venue to end all ceremonies by 10:00 pm. A realistic barat timeline in a Punjab marquee therefore reads: gates open 7:00 pm, barat arrival 7:30 pm, nikah if held at the venue 8:00 pm, dinner opens 8:45 pm, rukhsati 9:40 pm, lights and sound off 10:00 pm. Put every time on the BEO and share it with the family the day before.

In Karachi or Peshawar, write the closing time your district administration allows and your hall licence states. Staff should not have to guess.

Share the timeline with the photographer and the decorator too. They are the two suppliers most likely to hold up a rukhsati by asking for one more shot or one more flower change, and a printed closing time gives your duty manager the backing to say no.

• Gate opening and parking team in place
• Barat arrival and route through the venue
• Nikah, stage photos and speeches
• Dinner service start and last service
• Rukhsati and closing time

Head counts, gender seating and service

Many families still want separate seating for men and women, or a partition for part of the hall. The BEO should show how many tables go on each side, where the stage sits, and how the food lines are split, so the kitchen sends enough dishes to both. Write the guaranteed count, the expected count and the cut-off time for final numbers.

Give your service staff a ratio they can plan to, for example one waiter per 20 guests for a seated barat dinner and fewer for a buffet walima. Name the head waiter for each side of the partition.

Kitchen quantities for one dish done well

With only one salan and one rice dish allowed at a Punjab wedding, those two dishes carry the whole meal, and running out is far worse than at a buffet with eight choices. Write quantities per 100 guests on the BEO, for example 18 to 20 kg of raw meat for a qorma and 12 to 14 kg of rice for a biryani, and adjust for your own recipes. Add a buffer for the men's side, where second helpings are more common.

List when each dish must be ready and held hot, which cook owns it, and how many naan the tandoor must turn out per 15 minutes once service opens. A tandoor that falls behind at 9 pm is the single most common complaint at a barat dinner, and a written target gives the kitchen lead something to manage against.

Power, generators and safety

Load-shedding is a planning item, not a surprise. Put the generator capacity, the fuel check time and who switches over on the BEO. Mark which circuits run the kitchen hot boxes and which run the stage lighting, so a switch-over does not cut the food warmers at 9 pm.

The Punjab Act also forbids fireworks and firing at weddings, and decorating streets or parks outside the venue with lights. Security staff should know the rule and whom to call if a guest ignores it.

Sign-off and changes

Have the family contact sign the BEO two days before the function and again for any change after that. Changes to head count after the cut-off, a request for extra generator hours, or a late decor add-on should be written on the sheet with the price, and initialled. That is the record your accounts team uses when the final invoice goes out.

Venura keeps an event sheet for each booking with the menu, timings, head count and notes, and shares it with your team on WhatsApp, so the kitchen and the decor supervisor are reading the same version.

Keep the signed sheets for the whole year, not just the season.

Banquet event order questions from Pakistan