How many leaves should you plan for?
Guest counts at Tamil weddings are always a guess. Here is how we plan.
What a ₹450 leaf pays for
Groceries, cooks, servers, vessels, leaves and water: a breakdown of our vegetarian wedding lunch price.
Families comparing caterers in Madurai often look only at the price per leaf. It helps to know what that number includes, because two quotes of ₹450 can cover very different things. Here is how our vegetarian wedding lunch breaks down for a wedding of 800 guests within the city.
Groceries and vegetables are the largest part, at about ₹190 per leaf. That covers rice, dal, oil, ghee, coconut, spices, 20 or so vegetables, milk for payasam and curd, and sweets such as kesari or jangiri. Ghee and coconut prices move a lot through the year, which is why we confirm the final price two months before the wedding.
Cooks and servers come next, about ₹110 per leaf. A wedding of 800 needs a head cook, around 14 cooks and helpers, and about 35 uniformed servers, working from 3 am until the last round is cleared. Banana leaves, drinking water cans, paper cups and cleaning add ₹35. Fuel, whether wood or gas, adds ₹20. Transport of our vessels, stoves and team to the hall and back, plus vessel washing and upkeep, comes to about ₹30.
That totals around ₹385, leaving roughly ₹65, or 14 per cent, to run the kitchen, pay permanent staff through the quiet months and keep our vessels in good order. GST is extra. A quote much lower than ours often excludes servers, water or leaves, so ask for a full list before comparing. Kari virundhu costs more, from ₹850, mainly because of the price of mutton and fish.
