You can plan a wedding in India from the UK on one working trip. Bangalore is the only one of our three regions with a year-round non-stop from London; the calendar, not the flight, is the hard part, because the Christmas school holiday falls inside the fortnight the Indian muhurtham calendar closes.
This is the version written for families in Britain and Ireland rather than the general from-abroad guide: British Airways and Virgin schedules rather than a vague word about connections, school-holiday dates against muhurtham dates, pound figures beside the rupee bands, and what the Home Office actually asks of a marriage that happened in India. The wider system sits in our guide to planning an Indian wedding from abroad, and there is a companion written for couples in the USA. We have designed roughly 300 weddings for families living abroad since 2016, and every system below exists because something once went wrong without it.
Which of Bangalore, Goa and Kerala is easiest to reach from the UK?
Bangalore, comfortably. London Heathrow to Bengaluru is a non-stop of about nine hours and fifty minutes, flown by Air India, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. Goa has seasonal TUI services from Gatwick and Manchester into the new Mopa airport. Kochi has no UK non-stop at all, so guests connect through a Gulf hub.
That difference decides more than convenience. A Bangalore wedding asks a British guest for one flight and one taxi; a Goa wedding outside the seasonal window asks for a connection at Mumbai or Delhi or a Gulf hub, and a Kerala wedding always does. Each additional leg costs you guests, and the ones it costs you were undecided anyway. We size catering and room blocks against attendance rather than the invitation list: about 85 per cent turns up for a wedding in Bangalore itself, about 75 per cent for a drive-out venue in the Karnataka belt, and 55 to 65 per cent for Goa, where travel and hotel nights sit with the guest.
None of which makes Goa or Kerala the wrong answer. It makes them a different brief. If half your guest list is flying from Leicester, Birmingham and Harrow, a Goa wedding wants a longer lead time, a clearly communicated room block and one recommended routing published early rather than twelve families each solving the connection alone. The venue sets are in Bangalore, Goa and Kerala, and what each of them asks of a travelling guest list is in our Goa guest logistics guide and the Kerala equivalent.
How many trips to India does it take from the UK?
One working trip of seven to ten days, four to six months before the wedding, and then landing seven to ten days before the first function. City, date, budget, venue shortlist, decor and vendors are all settled on video calls and confirmed in writing. The trip buys confidence rather than capability.
The middle trip is work. Two days of final venue visits with the shortlist already down to two, the tasting with the chef who will actually cook, one outfit and jewellery day, the purohit conversation, and the sit-down where both families meet the plan and the person running it. Venues are walked on video long before that, which is how a shortlist of twelve becomes two; what we look for is the unphotographed part, the service route, the generator, the road noise and the distance from the last row to the stage.
The UK has one real advantage over the American diaspora here, and it is the clock. India runs on IST, four and a half hours ahead of British Summer Time and five and a half ahead of GMT, so a one o'clock call in London reaches Bangalore between half past five and half past six in the evening. That is a working hour at both ends, which matters when somebody has to be standing in a venue in daylight. Fix a recurring weekly slot rather than negotiating each call, and keep one Saturday morning a month for the calls that include parents in India. Jet lag is lighter too, but we still plan for the couple to be on the ground before the guests. How many India trips a wedding really needs sets out the alternatives, and our remote planning system covers how approvals are recorded so that decisions made on a call do not die in a group chat.
Which UK school holidays actually work with an Indian wedding date?
October half term and February half term. The Christmas holiday sits almost entirely inside kharmas, the Dhanur solar month running roughly 16 December to 14 January, when vivah is set aside across most of India. The 2027 Easter holiday falls inside Meena masa, and the summer holiday lands in the monsoon.
Put the two calendars side by side and the year is smaller than it looks. Taking one London borough as the example, October half term is 26 to 30 October 2026, the Christmas holiday is 21 December 2026 to 1 January 2027, February half term is 15 to 19 February 2027, Easter is 26 March to 9 April 2027, and the May half term is 31 May to 4 June 2027. Term dates differ by council and the Scottish calendar differs again, so check your own authority before anybody books a flight. The Christmas window and the 27 and 28 December bank holidays are inside kharmas. Easter 2027 sits inside Meena masa, 15 March to 14 April, which families treat more loosely than Dhanur but which your purohit should rule on rather than a planner. The May and summer holidays run into the south-west monsoon on the Goa and Kerala coast.
What survives is the October and February half terms, plus the first half of December, which is the strongest muhurtham stretch of the season and also the fortnight that peak-season venues in Goa and the Karnataka drive-out belt sell out first. A December date decided twelve months out is a different search from the same date decided six months out. If you are weighing a term-time wedding instead, English councils can fine each parent £80 for term-time absence, rising to £160 if it is not paid within 21 days, per child and per parent, and worth budgeting for rather than discovering later. The muhurtham lists city by city are in our 2027 wedding dates guide, and what each month does to the weather is in the Goa season guide and the Kerala season guide.
What does a 150- and 300-guest wedding in India cost in pounds?
Roughly £11,700 to £273,000, and the spread is city and format rather than taste. A 150-guest mid-range Bangalore wedding sits in the ₹15 to 30 lakh band, about £11,700 to £23,400 all-in; the same headcount at a premium Goa resort across three days is ₹50 to 80 lakh. Kerala sits between the two.
| Format | About 150 guests | About 300 guests |
|---|---|---|
| Bangalore, mid-range venue, all-in | ₹15–30 lakh (£11,700–23,400) | ₹30–65 lakh (£23,400–50,700) |
| Kerala, mid-range resort, two days | ₹30–60 lakh (£23,400–46,800) | Hall and sadya for about 300 local guests: ₹10–20 lakh (£7,800–15,600) |
| Goa, premium resort, three days | ₹50–80 lakh (£39,000–62,400) | ₹1.5–3.5 crore (£117,100–273,200) at a five-star over three to four days |
Read every band as all-in for venue, catering, decor and photography. Jewellery, outfits, flights and guest rooms beyond what the venue includes sit outside them, and hotel and catering invoices carry 18 per cent GST on top. The published Bangalore bands are for 100 to 200 and 300 to 500 guests, so 150 and 300 sit inside them rather than exactly on them, and the Kerala 300-guest row is a hall with a sadya, which is what 300 local guests in Kerala usually means.
Conversions use ₹128.12 to the pound, the August 2026 rate this site publishes its currency rows at; the live rate moves, so treat the sterling column as an order of magnitude rather than a quote. We quote and contract in rupees, which means the number you agree does not drift with the exchange rate between signing and the wedding. The line-by-line versions are in what a Bangalore wedding costs in 2026, what a Goa wedding costs and the Kerala cost breakdown.
How do we pay vendors in India from a UK bank account?
Three routes cover almost every UK-funded Indian wedding: a direct transfer from your UK bank to the vendor's Indian account, funding your own NRE or NRO account and paying every vendor domestically in rupees, or family in India paying while you settle within the family. Insist on a GST invoice for every payment on all three.
The quiet cost is the conversion spread rather than the transfer fee, and on wedding-sized sums the difference between a high-street bank and a specialist transfer service is real money, so compare before the first large payment rather than after the last one. Keep the transfer advice for every payment; for significant inward remittances your Indian bank can issue a Foreign Inward Remittance Certificate, which is far easier to request at the time than to reconstruct a year later. Pay the business named in the contract, never an individual's account.
Structure the schedule before the first advance: a small booking advance, milestone payments tied to named deliverables, a meaningful tranche after the wedding, and cancellation terms in writing. When we run the wedding, advances move against a schedule you approved before anything was booked, every line and receipt is visible to you, and we take no commission from any vendor, so the number you see is the number the vendor gets. The mechanics are in paying Indian wedding vendors from abroad and sending wedding money to India. Anything touching UK tax, gifting rules or what has to be declared belongs with your accountant, not with a wedding planner.
Is a religious ceremony in India recognised in the UK?
Only if the marriage is legally valid where it took place, which in India means registering it. Home Office guidance recognises an overseas marriage where that type of marriage is recognised in the country it happened in, where it was properly conducted to satisfy that country's law, and where nothing in either person's domicile law prevents it.
The guidance is explicit that further enquiries may be required where the marriage was a religious or customary one that has not been registered with the civil authorities of the country it took place in. That is the sentence to plan around. Register under the Hindu Marriage Act, which records a ceremony that has already happened with no notice period and no residence requirement, or under the Special Marriage Act, the civil route, which needs thirty days of notice before the marriage is solemnised and is therefore an entirely different shape of trip. Goa registers marriages under its own Code of Civil Registration, with a residence requirement and a publication period.
Then get the certificate apostilled by the Ministry of External Affairs. There is no UK re-registration to do afterwards; the deposit of foreign marriage certificates was discontinued from 1 January 2014, so the apostilled Indian certificate, with a certified English translation if it carries regional-language text, is the document you will show. Put the registration visit inside the wedding week rather than a second trip: both of you present, photo identity, proof of the ceremony, two witnesses. Our marriage registration guide for couples living abroad covers the documents and what the UK and other countries each accept, and getting married in India as a foreigner covers mixed-nationality couples. Your registrar, the Home Office and an immigration solicitor outrank a wedding planner on your case.
Questions couples in the UK ask us
Do our UK guests need a visa for India?
Yes, unless they hold an OCI card. GOV.UK travel advice for India says a visa is required otherwise, by e-visa or a regular visa, with a passport valid for six months beyond arrival and two blank pages. Dual nationals who also hold a Pakistani passport must apply on that passport and should allow substantially longer. Tell guests this at save-the-date stage, not at invitation stage. Send them our guest guide for dress, gifting and what happens at each function.
How many of our British friends will actually come?
Fewer than the invitation list suggests, and the number depends on the city. Plan for about 85 per cent for a wedding in Bangalore itself, about 75 per cent for a drive-out venue in the Karnataka belt, and 55 to 65 per cent for Goa, where travel and hotel nights sit with the guest. We size catering and room blocks off that, never off the invitation count.
Will you quote us in pounds?
We quote and contract in rupees and show a sterling equivalent beside it. That way the agreed number does not move when the rate does, which over a twelve-month planning year is the larger of the two risks. If you would rather hold the sterling risk differently, say so early and we will phase the payment schedule around it rather than around our own convenience.
Plan this from abroad
Tell us the month you are considering, the city and a rough headcount, and we will come back with a realistic budget and the venues actually open on those dates. Yours to keep, whoever you book. 500+ weddings since 2016, rated 4.8/5 across 94 Google reviews, and no commission taken from any vendor.
Keep planning: Planning from abroad · moving a family across continents for a wedding · Kerala weddings for families in the UK and US · the same playbook written for the USA.