Intimate weddings
A smaller guest list can feel closer to private dining than large-scale catering: plated menus, sharing dinners, chef-led service in a villa, residence or smaller venue.
Private chef for a smaller tablemyCHEF · Thoughtful food, considered service
Wedding Catering Dubai
Wedding catering in Dubai for villa celebrations, garden receptions and venue dinners. Start with the food you love, then choose a plated menu, sharing meal, buffet or live stations. We coordinate the catering around your guest list, venue and programme, with tastings and service details agreed in writing.
Booking Protection
Vetted Chefs, Scored Every Visit
Halal-First Kitchen Standards
Typical 15-Min Reply (business hours)
Also in this silo
Your wedding meal should feel considered from the first welcome bite to the last course. myCHEF brings together the menu, culinary team, service and timing, with one point of contact to coordinate the catering plan with your venue and wedding team. Explore food delivery and staffed service with Catering. Find inspiration for other celebrations with Event catering in Dubai. For regular meals at home, explore Private chef services in Dubai.
WHAT THIS IS
Wedding catering Dubai, thoughtfully coordinated
Wedding catering Dubai is the food: menu, tasting, chefs, service team and the flow of the meal. For twenty around one table it can be a plated dinner. For a hundred it can be canapés, then a buffet or live stations. You choose how far the catering goes.
We do not begin by asking you to choose Package A, B or C. We begin with the sitting you actually have. The wider catering ladder sits on Catering.
myCHEF designs and coordinates your catering plan, then matches your wedding with vetted chefs, service professionals and licensed culinary partners suited to the venue and menu. We manage the complete food and beverage operation and coordinate it with your wedding planner, venue and other suppliers.
We are not a wedding planner. Venue, ceremony, florals, entertainment and photography stay with you or your planner. If you are comparing wedding caterers in Dubai, that distinction matters more than a brochure list of inclusions.
Client reviews
Client reviews
Read our clients’ experiences before you plan your booking.
Previous Work · myCHEF
A closer look at our previous tables.
Private tables, place settings and garden arrangements from our event work. Share the details you would like us to plan for your occasion.
Garden dining table with candles, glassware and greenery at night
Long garden tables set for a daytime outdoor celebration
Round dinner tables set in a garden beneath string lights
Long outdoor dining table with flowers and white chairs beside a villa
Monochrome table setting with dark napkins and fresh flowers
Long garden dinner table set with white chairs at night
WHAT MYCHEF HANDLES
A clear scope for your wedding catering
Menu design, the culinary team, ingredient sourcing, food preparation, service staff, setup and clear-down of the catering operation, and dietary planning sit with us when they are in the brief.
Bar team, tableware, glassware, serving equipment and food presentation can be added. Cake can be coordinated; a specialist wedding cake often comes from a dedicated cake partner — pastry chef Matteo Moretti when the brief needs that work.
Venue sourcing, ceremony production, florals, entertainment, photography and invitations do not. We would rather be clear about that than pretend to be every supplier in the room.
HOW GUESTS EAT
How do you want your guests to eat?
There is no universally correct format. A plated dinner, a buffet, live stations, canapés and sharing tables create different evenings. One wedding can use more than one.
Plated wedding dinner
Guests are seated and courses are served to the table. Staffing, table layout and timing matter more here than on a buffet.
Buffet vs platedWedding buffet
A practical format for larger groups and more choice. Presentation, serving equipment and the team around it still have to suit a wedding — not a conference lunch.
Buffet cateringLive cooking stations
Food prepared in front of guests. Pasta, carving, grill, seafood, sushi, Asian, Middle Eastern or dessert stations can be the main meal or one stage of a longer evening.
Live cooking stationsCanapés and cocktail reception
For arrivals, the gap after the ceremony, or a standing reception. Can stay light before dinner, or become the whole food service.
Cocktail reception cateringSharing and family-style
Large dishes on the table. More social than plated service, still styled. Works well with Mediterranean, Italian and Middle Eastern menus.
Food, service and the tableGrazing and dessert tables
A grazing table for arrivals or a relaxed stretch of the reception. A dessert table as the last food moment of the night.
Grazing tablesINCLUDED AND OPTIONAL
You do not have to buy a complete event package
Some couples already have a planner, a venue team and suppliers. They need the food. Others need more of the hospitality around it. If a line is optional, it is labelled optional.
Always coordinated
Menu design · Chef matching · A named point of contact · Dietary planning · A written itemised proposal · Setup and clear-down of the food service
When the plan says so
Service staff · Tableware, glassware, linens · Bar team · Styling · On-site cooking equipment · A tasting
Optional additions
Cake and dessert table · Grazing table · Live stations · Late-night food · Children’s menu · Vendor meals · Coffee cart · Extra rental furniture
Venue or licensed partners
Kitchen access · Power, water, waste removal · Corkage and supplier-list fees · Weather cover · Loading windows. Alcohol service · Some hotel-ballroom executions · Specialist pastry · Temporary kitchens where the site has no production space.
PRICING
Wedding catering Dubai, quoted from the wedding
Treat any number you see online, including ours, as a planning estimate until you have a written proposal for your date, venue and guest count.
A food-led wedding buffet or station plan in Dubai often sits around AED 180–350 per guest once staff are in the room — less if it is true drop-off, more if you open live kitchens. A chef-led plated dinner in a villa, the evening most couples mean when they want myCHEF in the house, typically sits around AED 700–950 per guest. Hotel ballroom packages are a third thing: often AED 380–800+ and they may already include the room. Small villa dinners often work to a night minimum around AED 2,400–4,500 rather than a cheap head-rate.
A wedding catering price per person Dubai figure only means something once the format is named. Hotels sell wedding catering packages Dubai as a room-and-food bundle. We send an itemised plan instead: food, staff, rentals, extras, VAT.
The quote moves with guest count, the menu, and how much of the work happens in the room. We start from a published format and adjust it to your date. What to check: the named chef, an itemised quote, and who buys the ingredients. Dietary notes go into the first menu draft.
Wedding buffet catering Dubai for a larger reception usually sits below plated service per guest, because the team is sized differently.
| Format | Planning estimate |
|---|---|
| Food-only or drop-off wedding buffet | From about AED 120 per guest. Minimum about 20 guests. Food and delivery, not a staffed reception. |
| Full-service wedding buffet | Typically AED 180–350 per guest in the wider Dubai market; myCHEF’s published full-service buffet guide sits around AED 220–420. Minimum about 20 guests. |
| Live stations or premium buffet | Typically AED 250–500 per guest once chefs stand in front of the room. Food-led station starting point about AED 150; staffed wedding stations usually land higher. |
| Canapé reception | Typically AED 120–250 per guest for the hour, or AED 180–350 on myCHEF’s published canapé guide. Usually added to dinner, not used instead of it. |
| Hotel-style plated wedding dinner | Typically AED 250–550 per guest with independent or hotel teams; five-star in-house packages often AED 380–800+ and may bundle the room. |
| Chef-led plated villa dinner (myCHEF’s core product) | Typically AED 700–950 per guest, rising toward AED 1,200 for a luxury tasting. Named chef and service team cooking on site, not a banquet drop-off. |
- Planning estimates, 2026, plus 5% VAT.
- 5% VAT is shown as its own line on every proposal.
- Typical minimum booking values already published on the site: from about AED 900 for food-led orders; chef-led evenings often sit on starting package totals around AED 2,400 / 3,600 / 4,500 depending on the team.
- Figures reviewed August 2026.
- Not every wedding meets the starting points. Guest count, menu, staffing, venue access, timing and equipment move the total.
SMALL WEDDINGS
A small wedding should not be a simplified large one
Small wedding catering Dubai is not a banquet scaled down. Intimate table: with fewer guests the food can be more personal: a longer tasting menu, detailed plating, a sharing dinner. That brief often belongs with a private chef for a smaller table.
A nikah catering Dubai brief is the same operation at a smaller table: menu, service and timing still have to hold.
Planning another gathering: explore food delivery, staffed menus and full service for your other celebrations.
Another occasion: explore menus and service for birthdays, corporate evenings and private parties. For an intimate meal, tasting menu or desert setting, explore our private dining experiences.
WHERE THE WEDDING HAPPENS
Villa, garden, outdoor — the venue changes the catering
Villa wedding catering
A villa gives you freedom. Catering still has to be planned around kitchen access, preparation space, electricity, water, guest movement and where each food stage happens.
Villa cateringGarden and outdoor weddings
Temperature, food holding, shade, access and kitchen distance all change the plan. We do not simply move an indoor menu outside.
Outdoor cateringHotel and licensed venues
Downtown, DIFC, Business Bay, Dubai Marina, JBR, Bluewaters: ask on day one whether external catering is allowed. If the hotel says no, they are selling a building and a kitchen. That can be the right buy — it is not a myCHEF plated menu in that ballroom.
Preferred catererPeak outdoor season: November to March. Shoulder: October and April. Indoor or cooled-marquee season: May to September. For a larger reception we can design the food across several moments: welcome drinks, canapés, dinner, dessert, late-night food, bar. Different parts can use different formats.
Palm Jumeirah, Emirates Hills and Dubai Hills each have their own gate and kitchen realities — Palm Jumeirah, Emirates Hills, Dubai Hills .
DIETARY REQUIREMENTS
Halal, allergies and the rest of the guest list
Requirements belong in the menu from the beginning, not as a surprise on the day. Halal sourcing is the default for myCHEF catering menus in Dubai — tell us the standard you expect. Halal catering.
We plan vegetarian, vegan, Jain, gluten-free, dairy-free and nut-conscious covers when you share them in time. Halal is the default kitchen standard. We are allergy-aware and allergen-conscious. Cross-contact cannot be ruled out unless controls have been confirmed for the assigned kitchen. We do not promise an “allergy-safe” environment we cannot guarantee. Vegan catering · Vegetarian catering.
STAFF AND BAR
The team should match the wedding
Food can be excellent and still fail if service does not work. Waiters, runners and bartenders are scaled to guest count and format — not because they sit in a package.
Alcohol is venue-licence dependent. Soft drinks, mocktails, tea and coffee can be planned through myCHEF. Spirit and wine service is coordinated with the venue or a licensed partner. Bar services. To see how chefs are selected, read how we vet chefs.
HOW IT WORKS
A sequence of decisions, not dozens of disconnected questions
01→
Tell us the wedding: date, location, guest count, approximate style, any food ideas you already have.
02→
We understand the catering brief: formal or relaxed, plated or buffet, one cuisine or several, food only or fuller service.
03→
We develop a menu direction. You review it. Nothing stays on the menu only because it usually appears at weddings.
04→
We build the team, equipment and operational plan around that food.
05→
Where needed, we align timing with the venue or wedding planner.
06→
Guest count, menu, dietary requirements and timing are confirmed before the day.
07
On the wedding day the team runs the food and beverage operation. You stay with the reason everyone is there.
We recommend contacting us three to six months before your wedding. Larger weddings and peak dates from November to March should begin earlier — often six to twelve months. Short-notice weddings may be possible depending on the venue, menu and partner availability. Setup is usually about two hours before guests. Service is usually about three hours unless the run sheet is longer.
Tasting: After the date is held and the menu direction is agreed, typically four to eight weeks before the wedding. Larger or peak-season weddings: eight to twelve weeks. Final guest count is seven to fourteen days before the wedding. The menu locks with those numbers. Wedding catering checklist.
HOW THIS LOOKS IN PRACTICE
A villa wedding menu to inspire your plans
This sample brief combines a relaxed reception with generous sharing dishes. Explore more planning ideas through our case studies and dining inspiration in the gallery.
Villa wedding reception, Emirates Hills
80 guests · Private villa, Emirates Hills
Arabic-Mediterranean fusion; roaming canapés, live grill and family-style sharing plates.
A suggested format that gives guests time to mingle between canapés, sharing plates and dancing.
Case studiesWHY MYCHEF
Explore our service approach
How culinary partners are selected
Identity, right-to-work, skill and references are checked before anyone cooks for a client. No chef is guaranteed by name; we match the wedding.
How myCHEF quality standards workWhat halal-first means here
Halal ingredients are sourced by default for myCHEF catering menus in Dubai. Tell us the standard you expect. Specific certification belongs in the brief.
Halal cateringFood safety and who cooks
Culinary preparation is performed by independent, licensed culinary partners working to Dubai Municipality food-safety standards. myCHEF designs and coordinates the catering. The client engages those professionals.
How booking worksWritten proposals
Guest count, menu, staffing, format, venue access, timing and equipment are itemised. Minimums and 5% VAT are shown before you book.
Wedding catering pricesPLANNING PAGES
Cost, checklist and menu live on their own pages
BEFORE YOU BOOK
What should I know before I book the wedding meal?
From small villa dinners of around twenty to receptions of several hundred. The format, staffing and kitchen plan follow the final count and the site, not a standard package.
myCHEF designs and coordinates the catering plan, then matches you with vetted chefs, service professionals and licensed culinary partners. We stay your point of contact for the food and beverage operation and work with your planner and venue.
Yes. Villa, garden, beach and rooftop weddings are a regular part of the work, alongside hotel and licensed venues. Outdoor service is planned for Dubai’s climate, with a weather backup agreed before the day.
Three to six months is the comfortable window. When to book caterer for wedding dates in Dubai, start there, and earlier for November–March peak and larger receptions. Short notice is sometimes possible — send the date and we will say honestly whether the right team is free.
It is custom-quoted. Buffet and stations generally sit lower per guest than plated service. Small villa dinners often have a minimum booking value. Every proposal is itemised and includes 5% VAT as its own line. The cost guide explains what moves the number.
Halal is the default. Vegetarian, vegan, Jain and allergy-aware covers are planned when you share them. We do not promise an allergy-safe kitchen unless a dedicated controlled setup has been confirmed for your booking.
Welcome drinks, mocktails, soft drinks, tea and coffee can be part of the plan. Alcohol depends on the venue licence. Where it is permitted, we coordinate with the venue or a licensed partner rather than improvising.
Yes. We manage the food and beverage operation and fit it to your planner’s run sheet. We do not replace a planner. If you do not have one, we still need one named day-of contact who is not the couple.
Where We Serve
Wedding catering across Dubai
Available across Dubai including Palm Jumeirah, Emirates Hills and Dubai Hills . See areas we serve.
TELL US WHAT YOU ARE PLANNING
Date, venue and guest count is enough to start
You do not need to know exactly what to order. Date, venue or area, guest count, format, cuisine, dietary requirements, budget band, and whether you already have a planner. That is enough to begin. We typically reply within 15 minutes during business hours.
01 · Planning with myCHEF
Plan the wedding meal from arrival to the final course
Begin with the moments around the meal: guest arrival, the ceremony, photographs, speeches and the first dance. A canapé reception can cover the welcome period before everyone sits down. A buffet or live station creates a different pace, so allow time for guests to move and return to their tables comfortably.
Wedding menu planning should include the complete guest list, children’s meals, dietary alternatives and any food that has personal or cultural importance. Decide whether the meal is plated, shared or served from stations before finalising individual dishes. A tasting, where arranged, helps refine flavour and presentation; its scope and cost should be confirmed separately.
Check the venue’s catering access, kitchen facilities, equipment rules and service deadline. Agree who receives and stores an externally supplied cake and who coordinates changes to the programme. Use the wedding catering checklist to bring these details together before approving the final menu, staffing and equipment.
03 · Planning with myCHEF
Build the service schedule around your guests
Work backwards from the time guests should begin eating. The team may need access earlier for unloading, setup and preparation, particularly when equipment or several service areas are involved. Share the programme before the menu is finalised so the catering plan can support it.
Identify moments when service should pause, such as a speech, presentation or ceremony. For an office event, confirm the length of each break and whether everyone will arrive at once. For a private celebration, allow for the welcome period and any cake or toast that needs its own place in the sequence.
Agree a contact for changes on the day. Small timing adjustments may be manageable, while a substantial extension can affect staffing and the booked hours. Clear communication helps the team respond sensibly and keeps the food connected to the occasion rather than running on a separate timetable.
Your occasion, thoughtfully planned
Tell us what you have in mind.
Share your date, venue, guest count and menu preferences. We’ll discuss the service your occasion needs and confirm the details in a written proposal.
Start your catering enquiry