Mandap quotes vary more than any other décor we do, and families are often surprised by how much. Two structures that look nearly identical in photographs can be three times apart in price.
Here is what actually drives that.
Fresh, mixed, or artificial
This is the single largest variable.
Fresh flowers are bought at the market on the morning of the function, at that morning’s rate, in the quantity your structure needs. A fully fresh four-pillar mandap uses a lot of them.
Mixed — fresh flowers on the sightlines and the areas people photograph close up, with fabric, foliage and artificial work filling the volume — costs considerably less and, done properly, is indistinguishable at any distance.
Fully artificial is cheapest and survives multi-day functions, but it reads as artificial up close, and for most families the mandap is the one place that matters.
We will tell you which you are getting before you book. If a quote does not say, ask.
The season
Flower prices in Pune move a great deal. Wedding season from November to February, plus festival weeks, pushes rates up sharply — sometimes double.
The same mandap in July and in December is not the same price, and no honest decorator can hold a flower quote for months. Ours are valid for 14 days, and shorter if your date falls in a peak week.
The structure
Four pillars is the standard. Beyond that:
- Height — a mandap for a hall with an 18-foot ceiling needs more material than one for a 12-foot lawn marquee
- Canopy — an open frame, a draped canopy and a fully floral ceiling are three different jobs
- Platform — whether the mandap sits on the floor or on a built stage
- Seating — decorated chairs for the couple and the parents
The venue’s own rules
This catches people out. Some banquet halls do not allow nails or drilling, some will not permit open flame, some have a fixed setup window of three hours and some charge their own vendor fee.
All of those change what has to be built and how many people it takes. Give us the venue name at the enquiry stage and we will check directly with them rather than discovering it on the morning.
How many functions you book together
This is where most families save real money.
If the haldi, the mehendi, the mandap and the reception are booked as one set, structures and fabric get reused across days, one team covers all of them, and the travel and setup overhead is paid once instead of four times.
Booking four decorators for four functions is almost always the most expensive way to do it.
What a written quote should contain
Ask for the flower cost shown separately from labour and structure. There are two reasons:
- If you later change the scale, you can see immediately what moves.
- If flower rates spike before your date, an honest decorator can show you exactly what changed rather than just quoting a higher number.
About substitution
No decorator in Pune can guarantee a specific flower variety weeks ahead. Supply moves with the season and the weather.
What you should expect is a written commitment that any unavailable bloom is substituted at equal or higher value in the same colour family, and that you are told before the setup begins rather than after. That is our policy and it should be anybody’s.
Planning a wedding? See what we build on our wedding decoration page, or send us the venue and the dates on WhatsApp for a written quote.