Wedding catering Mumbai: the November–December booking clock

The season starts the week after Diwali

Mumbai's winter wedding season traditionally opens once Diwali clears. In 2026 Diwali clears late (Lakshmi Puja on 8 November, Bhai Dooj on 11 November) because the lunar calendar carried a leap month this cycle. The consequence for wedding logistics is mechanical: the same density of November–December weddings now fits into roughly five weeks instead of eight. Venues in Juhu, Bandra West and Powai hold their dates; it is the vendor calendars underneath (catering first among them) that absorb the compression.

What compression does to a catering calendar

A kitchen that runs a 600-guest reception on a Saturday needs the preceding 72 hours for that wedding alone. Compress the season and those 72-hour blocks start colliding: two sangeets and a reception on one weekend is a different operation from the same three events across three weekends. Kravvia has cooked weddings since 1999 (the house began with family weddings out of Santacruz) and the honest arithmetic is that a compressed season is booked in September, not discovered in November.

The wedding date is set by the family and the panchang. The catering quality is set by how early Kravvia knew about it.

The September checklist

Families with a November–December 2026 date should have three things done before Navratri opens on 11 October: the tasting, the menu lock, and the counter plan. Tastings are arranged before wedding bookings as standard practice: a working session against the 200-plus dish menu spanning eight cuisines, from Punjabi and Gujarati mains to the Thai and Italian sections that now anchor cocktail hours. Counter selection matters more in a compressed season because stations are a fixed inventory: the tandoor, the eleven-pot khow suey, the chaat cart with eight chutneys and the 90-second pizza forno each exist in finite number per weekend.

The numbers that frame the decision

Catering starts from ₹650 per guest for a four-course vegetarian menu and scales with live counters and dessert stations. Jain tables are a fixture of Mumbai weddings: Kravvia runs them from its isolated Jain kitchen, separate since 2012, at strict spec rather than the no-onion-no-garlic approximation. Guest counts from a 30-person mehendi lunch to a 600-guest reception run to the same standard, with the same sourcing.

FAQ

When does the 2026–27 Mumbai wedding season begin?

Effectively the week after Diwali: mid-November 2026, once Bhai Dooj (11 November) clears, running through December and into the new year.

How early should a November–December wedding book its caterer?

By September. The 2026 season is compressed by the late Diwali, and tastings, menu locks and counter allocation all happen before Navratri (11 October).

What does Mumbai wedding catering cost per guest?

Kravvia starts from ₹650 per guest for a four-course vegetarian menu, scaling with live counters and dessert stations. Strict Jain service runs from a separate kitchen.

Does Kravvia do a tasting before booking?

Yes. Tastings are arranged before wedding bookings, working against the full 200-plus dish, eight-cuisine menu.

WhatsApp Priti at +91 98207 11758 to plan your wedding menu.