Four hundred guests across a ladies function and a mens function in the same building, which is the most common shape of wedding in this country and the one most often planned as a single event.
We planned two events. Two written schedules that shared only the nikah time and the cake. Separate entrances on opposite sides of the building, with two people directing arrivals so that nobody was walked past the wrong door. Two coordinators, a lady on the ladies side for the entire evening and a colleague on the mens side, in touch by telephone.
Serving was where the planning paid for itself. Four hundred guests on one buffet line is an hour and forty minutes of queue, so each side got two lines and its own tea and hedhikaa table. The longest queue anybody stood in that night was eleven minutes.
The bride had a private room off the ladies hall to sit in when she was not on the stage, which had to be argued for with the venue and which every bride we have ever worked with has been grateful for by hour four.
