How to book wedding catering with Dana Prime
Corporate event organisers and executive assistants booking a wedding on behalf of a company or a colleague follow the same three steps, whether the venue is in Abu Dhabi, Dubai or Sharjah.
- Brief: Send us the date, venue, guest count and any dietary requirements over WhatsApp or the enquiry form. We ask about service style preference (buffet, plated, canapé or live stations), timings for the ceremony and reception, and whether you need staff on-site throughout the event.
- Tasting: Before anything is confirmed, we arrange a free tasting so you and the couple, or the stakeholders you represent, can review the proposed menu. This happens at a mutually convenient location and lets you adjust dishes, portion styles or course sequencing ahead of the day.
- Delivery and service: Once the menu and headcount are confirmed, our own delivery, setup and serving team handles transport, table or station setup, live cooking where applicable, service throughout the event, and full clear-down afterwards. You are not coordinating separate vendors for food, service staff and logistics.
Because we operate from our own kitchens in Abu Dhabi Industrial City (ICAD II) and cook more than 7,000 meals daily, we can scale a wedding brief from an intimate reception to a large multi-course event without subcontracting the kitchen work. We quote after the tasting, once the final menu and numbers are agreed, so you are not committing to a proposal you haven't tasted.
For organisers managing this alongside other responsibilities, we keep communication on WhatsApp so updates, menu revisions and confirmations are in one thread you can refer back to, rather than scattered across email chains and calls.
Buffet, plated, canapé or live-station service for your wedding
The right service style depends on guest numbers, venue layout and the tone of the event, and we discuss this as part of the initial brief.
- Buffet service suits larger weddings where guests move between multiple stations and want variety across courses. It works well for receptions with 150 or more guests and venues with generous floor space.
- Plated service suits formal, seated weddings where course timing is coordinated with speeches, entertainment or ceremony elements. It gives tighter control over pacing and presentation, and is often preferred for head-table or VIP sections even when the wider room is served buffet-style.
- Canapé service works for cocktail-style receptions, pre-dinner drinks or smaller, standing-format celebrations. It allows guests to circulate and suits venues without full seating.
- Live stations, such as our grill live station, pasta live station or shawarma live station, add an interactive element and work well alongside a buffet or canapé format, particularly for evening receptions.
Many weddings combine formats: canapés during arrival, a plated or buffet main service, and a live dessert or coffee station later in the evening. We can propose this kind of layered structure once we understand the venue and the running order of the day.
For corporate-linked weddings, such as those organised through a company on behalf of a senior colleague, we also account for any protocol requirements around seating order, timing around speeches, and coordination with the venue's own events team, since our serving staff work alongside venue staff rather than replacing them.
Whichever format you choose, our own serving team is briefed on the running order in advance so service pacing matches the schedule you provide, rather than being generic.
On the day: setup, service and clear-down
Wedding timings are tighter than most corporate events, so we build a detailed on-the-day schedule with you well before the date, covering setup, service and clear-down.
Our team typically arrives ahead of the stated setup window to allow time for equipment placement, live station preparation and food safety checks before doors open to guests. For venues in Abu Dhabi, Dubai or Sharjah, travel time from our ICAD II kitchens is factored into the schedule so hot food arrives at the correct temperature and cold items are held correctly until service.
During service, our own serving staff manage plating or buffet replenishment, live-station cooking, and beverage service, working to the timing you've set for courses, speeches and entertainment. If the reception runs long or short against the plan, our team adjusts pacing on-site rather than rigidly following the original schedule, since wedding timings often shift.
We coordinate directly with the venue's events or banqueting team on practical matters such as loading access, kitchen or back-of-house space, and power requirements for live stations, so you are not relaying messages between two separate suppliers.
Once service ends, our team handles full clear-down: removing equipment, packing unused stock, and leaving the service area in the condition agreed with the venue. This is included as standard, not an additional step you need to separately organise.
Throughout the event, one point of contact from our team remains available to you or your delegated colleague, so any last-minute adjustment, such as a change in guest numbers or a dietary request that surfaces on the day, can be handled without disrupting service.
For weddings with multiple phases, ceremony catering, reception canapés, and a later dinner, we can staff each phase separately or continuously, depending on venue logistics and guest flow between spaces.
Why corporate event organisers choose Dana Prime for wedding catering
Dana Prime has operated since 1998 from our own kitchens in Abu Dhabi Industrial City (ICAD II), cooking more than 7,000 meals daily. For an event organiser booking wedding catering on behalf of a company or executive, that scale means we can absorb late guest-count changes or menu additions without treating your event as an exception to a smaller operation.
We hold ISO 22000 and HACCP certifications, and can provide our certificates, trade licence and a capability statement on request, so your procurement or compliance team has documentation to review before sign-off.
We currently serve 22 client organisations on an ongoing basis, alongside one-off event bookings such as weddings, and hold a 4.6-star Google rating. We're glad to share references so you can check our service directly with organisations that have booked us before, rather than relying solely on what's written here.
Every wedding booking includes a free tasting before you commit. This lets you, or the couple you're organising for, confirm flavour, portion size and presentation before numbers and a final menu are locked in. We quote after the tasting once the menu and format are agreed.
Because delivery, setup and service are handled by our own team rather than subcontracted staff, the same standards apply from kitchen to table: food safety procedures, service pacing and presentation are consistent across the 136 dishes and 16 courses on our menu.
We serve weddings across Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah and the wider UAE, so a single point of contact can manage catering for events across multiple emirates if your organisation books more than one venue or has guests travelling between locations.
If you're weighing up catering suppliers for a wedding, ask any potential supplier for their certifications, their client references, and whether a tasting is included before booking. We'd encourage you to compare our answers to those questions against any other option you're considering.
