At some of the largest weddings Priya Maganti has planned in India, there were 50,000 guests, give or take a couple hundred.
“To be honest, you can’t count after a certain point,” said Ms. Maganti, who runs RVR Eventz & Design in Hyderabad, India. “Everything doubles or triples: your food catering, your seating, your gifts, your planning team, the allergies and requirements.”
Having that many wedding guests isn’t exactly normal in India, but large weddings of 500-plus are more common there than in many other countries.
“Weddings are a way of life in India,” said Parthip Thyagarajan, the founder of WeddingSutra, a planning website. “A wedding is not just about the bride and groom in India. It’s about two families talking about their values, their vision and communicating to the world who they are.” For some luxury weddings, “there are up to 300 agencies, production houses and planners involved,” he added.
An average Indian wedding will have around 310 guests and costs $10,000 to $30,000, according to Wright Research, an investment advisory firm based in Mumbai, India. By comparison, a U.S. wedding typically includes about 116 guests and costs $33,000, according to The Knot, a wedding planning website.
Other countries are also known to go big. In Nigeria, weddings generally cater to at least 350 guests and as many as 1,000, according to planners, costing $9,000 to $14,000, according to Business Insider Africa. And in South Korea, the average wedding size is 279, according to Statista, a data gathering service, and costs around $36,000, as of 2022, according to a local matchmaking agency, Duo, cited in The Korea Times.
With this much volume, event planners will have to put their organizational, social and time-management skills to the test. Some challenges they face are universal, but others are specific to large-scale events.
For one, the more invitations issued, the higher the chances that an R.S.V.P. won’t be honored. Planners estimate that 15 to 20 percent of people invited won’t make it, according to Devanshi Patel, the founder and owner of Shreem Events in Mumbai.
But sometimes, that calculation is off. “In 2023, we had a wedding of 1,500, and 2,500 turned up,” said Khurram Khan, who co-founded Parinaya Sutra with Dheera Likhi. “The other side is that you plan for more people, 1,000 maybe, and then 600 or 700 come. Then, you have a lot of seating and big spaces that aren’t occupied.”
Planners for bigger-than-average celebrations also need to manage crews to match. Recently, Ms. Patel had a team of about 150 people working on a 550-guest wedding in Jaipur, the capital of the Indian state of Rajasthan.
“We chartered two airplanes — the host took care of everybody’s tickets — and the planners became like airport attendants for the guests,” she said. “We customized the food on the plane and got a D.J. to curate the track list that we gave to the airline to put on the P.A. system. On arrival, we had an entire welcome for them with horses, camels, dancers from Rajasthan.”
At a massive wedding, the entertainment must be top-notch and rapid-fire to keep the crowds engaged. Preston Bailey, who worked on last year’s extravagant Ambani-Merchant wedding, said that big weddings have become like Broadway shows.
“Our goal is that every 15 minutes, there’s a wonderful surprise,” Mr. Bailey said.
Planners who have seen it all — and then some — offer some other universal advice.
Vet the vendors
When choosing whom to work with, don’t be afraid to ask all your questions.
“What’s the backup plan?” Ms. Likhi said. “What scale have they worked on? What’s the maximum budget wedding they’ve handled?”
Mr. Bailey said that being aware of unspoken signals is important.
“As soon as I get an inquiry, I try to return it as quickly as possible,” Mr. Bailey said. “I am accessible — that’s the first unconscious message that they get, which I think is extremely important.”
Form a smart layout
A well-structured floor plan can make all the difference, whether you have 100 guests or 10,000.
There should be different zones for eating, dancing and lounging, Ms. Likhi said. Create space between gathering points and encourage movement.
“The mains are in one place, the desserts are in a different place,” she said.
None of the gathering areas should be near the entry and exit, providing room for the support staff to maneuver, she added.
Stay organized
Several years ago, Noureen Morani and Karan Soorma, founders of Morani & Soorma, organized back-to-back destination weddings in the United Arab Emirates for two cousins, with the guest count fluctuating between 600 and 1,000 throughout the week.
“The hotel was about 1.5 kilometers long,” Mr. Soorma said. “The team was sprinting around the entire property.”
The two maintained detailed checklists and schedules to handle the events and the 20 different musical acts. Mr. Soorma also recommended setting timelines for major tasks and establishing agreed-upon payment schedules.
“Pay your team as much as you can in advance so they’re motivated to deliver, and on the day of the wedding, you’re not worried,” he said.
Have a backup plan
During one outdoor event at a 600-person wedding in Sri Lanka, Ms. Patel discovered that rain was imminent. Luckily, she already had a hangar set up just in case, so she and her team began herding inside around 200 guests dancing in a procession.
“As soon as they stepped inside, there was a downpour,” Ms. Patel said. “If a vendor screws up, you can get a second vendor, but with nature, it’s really risky, and you always need to have a Plan B.”
Remain flexible and prioritize communication
At a 600-person wedding in Jaipur, rain forced Ms. Morani and Mr. Soorma to move an entire outdoor setup into a ballroom.
“It had taken all night to get it ready, and we shifted it in six hours,” Ms. Morani said. “The lawn became a swimming pool.”
After pushing the ceremony back by half an hour, they informed all the guests of the schedule change.
“Keep the communication flowing,” Mr. Soorma said. “Help people understand what’s gone wrong and manage their expectations. Once people know what to expect when they’re entering the venue, they’re accommodating.”
Fake it ’til you make it
When all else fails, act cool.
“Panic is very contagious,” Mr. Bailey said. “My advice is, whatever you do, keep your calm — at least on the outside.”
