In this guide
Quick answer
The dry fruit tray is one of the few things at a wedding that every guest walks past and most of them look at closely. It is also one of the few where a family can spend twice what they needed to and get a worse tray for it. Both problems come down to choosing grades before choosing quantities.
What is a wedding tray actually for?
Two jobs, and they pull in opposite directions. One tray is looked at, carried in a procession, set on a table beside the rings and photographed from above. The other is eaten, refilled through the evening and finished by the cousins. Families order one quantity for both jobs, buy the handsome grade for all of it, and pay for looks on the half that nobody sees.
Split it instead. The display tray takes the large whole grades and not very much of them. The eating trays take the everyday grades and far more. The guests notice the first and enjoy the second, and the same money covers both comfortably.
How much of each item does a tray need?
For a display tray of the usual size, a quarter kilo of each item fills it well and leaves room to arrange things properly. A tray heaped to the edge looks cheaper in a photograph than a tray with space in it.
| Tray | Grade to buy | Rough quantity |
|---|---|---|
| Display or ceremony tray | Large whole grades only | A quarter kilo of four or five items |
| Refilled through the evening | Everyday grades | Half a kilo per item, per hundred guests |
| Boxes for close family | Large whole grades | By the box, counted against the list |
Which items belong on a tray people will photograph?
The ones with size and colour. Large whole kaju read as generous from a distance and hold their shape under lights. Anjeer gives the tray its brown, and a fat whole anjeer looks like nothing else on the table. Whole almonds, pista kernels for green, and a few medjool khajur for depth complete it without crowding.
Anjeer at our counter runs at today's shop rate at the moment, set out grade by grade on the anjeer price page. Kaju runs at today's shop rate, and which grade a display tray wants is worth ten minutes on the kaju price page before the order goes in.
Where does the money usually go wrong?
- Buying the gift grade for the eating trays, which doubles the largest line on the order and changes nothing a guest can taste.
- Ordering in the last ten days, when the large grades have already gone and what is left is both dearer and smaller.
- Buying loose and repacking at home the night before, which takes four people an evening and still looks uneven.
- Guessing the guest count high and ending up with five kilos nobody wants a week later.
The timing one costs the most. Grades sell out before rates peak, so the family that orders six weeks out gets both the better tray and the better figure. Badam is the clearest example: it runs at today's shop rate across our grades today, and the gap between the everyday count and the large whole one is wider than most people expect.
Should the boxes for close family be made up at home?
Only if somebody genuinely has the evening for it. A home-filled box is cheaper on paper and rarely looks it, and the labour lands on the family in the week they have least of it. Made-up boxes cost a little more per kilo and arrive sealed, arranged and ready to hand over.
Our orders start at ₹1,000 and every order ships free, which for a wedding-sized order is never the constraint. If you are working out the split between trays and boxes, the wedding page sets out what families usually order, and the gift boxes show what a made-up box looks like before you decide.
Questions people ask
How far ahead should a wedding order be placed?
Six weeks is comfortable. Four is workable. Inside two weeks the large whole grades are usually gone, and that is the part of the order a tray is judged on.
How much dry fruit for a hundred guests?
Around half a kilo of each everyday item per hundred, on top of whatever the display trays take. Guests graze rather than eat a portion, so the number is lower than catering figures suggest.
Which items keep best if the wedding is delayed?
Anjeer, khajur and kishmish will sit for two or three months sealed. Almonds and walnut kernels should be kept cool and used within a month or so.
We deliver across India See 87 city pages
Written at our counter, where these questions get asked every week.
