Punjabi Wedding Entertainment

Planning a Punjabi wedding? Reena Kaur and the Punjabi Folk Entertainment team provide live Punjabi singers, Ladies Sangeet performers, dhol players and Punjabi DJs for weddings and celebrations across the UK and internationally.

A Punjabi wedding is several events, not one

The thing that catches most families out is that a Punjabi wedding is not a single booking. It is a run of events across several days, each with its own room, its own guest list and its own kind of music. The Sangeet wants live singing and a dholki. The baraat wants dhol. The reception wants a dancefloor that stays full until the lights come up.

Booking them together is worth doing for a practical reason rather than a commercial one: the handovers get planned. When one team covers the dhol entry, the live set and the DJ, the cues are agreed in advance instead of being sorted out in a corridor on the night. It also means the song choices can be planned across the week, so the Sangeet and the reception do not end up playing each other’s songs.

Ladies Sangeet and dholki nights

The Sangeet is the women’s celebration in the days before the wedding, built around singing, dholki rhythms and dancing. In many families the same evening is called the dholki, after the small two-headed hand drum the singing is built on. Whichever name yours uses, it is the same booking.

This is a participation event rather than a background-music one, built around the traditional call-and-response boliyan between the bride’s side and the groom’s side.

More on Ladies Sangeet singers →

Mehndi

The Mehndi is a longer, slower event. Guests are seated for hours while henna is applied, and the entertainment has to work around that rather than over it. Live singing suits it well — a folk set that holds the room without demanding a dancefloor, building into something livelier once the henna is done.

Jago

The Jago is the night-time procession — the decorated pot carried on the head, singing, and a great deal of noise. It is one of the events where live music is not really optional. The whole point is a group moving and singing together, and a speaker on a trolley does not do it.

Dhol is what carries a Jago, because it is portable and loud enough to lead a moving crowd. Live singers work alongside it for the traditional Jago songs.

Sangeet, Mehndi and Jago: what each night is for →

Baraat

The groom’s procession is the most common dhol booking of the whole wedding, and for good reason. A baraat without dhol is a group of people walking. The drum is what turns an arrival into an entrance.

More on dhol players →

Wedding reception

The reception usually opens with a live element — dhol for the couple’s entrance, and a folk set during or after the seated portion.

Who performs at your wedding

• ✓Punjabi singers — live folk vocals led by Reena Kaur, covering traditional Punjabi folk and wedding songs, Pakistani classics, Bollywood and modern fusion. Punjabi folk singers →
• ✓Ladies Sangeet performers — female singers who lead the Sangeet or dholki night from start to finish, with live dholki. Ladies Sangeet singers →
• ✓Dhol players — for the baraat, the Jago, couple entrances and dance sets. Dhol players →
• ✓Punjabi DJs — Punjabi, Bollywood and international sets with sound and lighting included. Punjabi DJ services →

The line-up is chosen for the booking rather than taken off a shelf. We bring as many performers as each event calls for, and the team is picked to suit the style and scale of your wedding.

Booking and planning timeline

Wedding-season dates go early, and the popular Saturdays go earliest. This is roughly how the planning runs:

• ✓Twelve months out — check the date and secure it. This is the point at which you still have a real choice rather than whatever is left. Shorter notice is always worth asking about; we take last-minute bookings when availability allows.
• ✓Six to nine months out — confirm which events you want covered across the week, and roughly how long each performance needs to be.
• ✓Three months out — build the set lists. Most families have songs that matter, and those go into the running order deliberately rather than by chance. Songs you would rather avoid can be left out.
• ✓Four to six weeks out — venue and logistics. Access times, noise restrictions, performance space, power, and who else needs the sound system. If you have a planner or coordinator, put us in touch with them directly.
• ✓The week of — final running order and timings, confirmed with the venue and anyone else performing.

If your dates are already tight, enquire anyway. It is a short conversation, and we would rather tell you quickly than have you assume.

Pricing and booking

Every wedding is quoted individually. Pricing is bespoke and based on what your week actually needs — which events you want covered, the line-up for each, the running order and the travel involved — so there is no fixed price list. Tell us what you are planning and we will put a quote together for it.

There is more on how booking works on the FAQs page, and a longer walk-through in our guide to planning entertainment for a Punjabi wedding.

Enquire about your wedding