Palace vs Farmhouse vs Resort Wedding – Style Guide for Destination Celebrations

Farmhouse Wedding – Rustic Charm at Tivoli Royal Palace

The farmhouse wedding style blends open-air relaxation with curated elegance. While Tivoli Royal Palace in Faridabad is formally a palace-banquet venue, its expansive outdoor lawns, garden spaces, and proximity to Delhi make it the ideal canvas for couples who want a rustic-farmhouse aesthetic without travelling hours from the city. Located just 30-40 minutes from South Delhi, it provides same-day vendor access for florists, prop houses, and live food stations that define the farmhouse vibe.

Ideal Guest Count

Farmhouse-style celebrations work best with 200-500 guests. This range allows for the intimate, relaxed atmosphere that defines the style. Royal Palace's outdoor lawns comfortably hold 800 guests, but the farmhouse aesthetic shines at smaller gatherings where every guest feels connected to the celebration. For mega-guest-list families who still want the farmhouse feel, zoning the lawn into themed pockets, a lounge area with floor seating, a dance floor with fairy lights, a food village with live counters, creates intimacy within scale.

Decor Style

Farmhouse decor centres on natural materials and warm lighting. Think wooden arches and mandaps, jute and burlap table runners, mason-jar centrepieces with wildflowers, fairy-light canopies over the lawn, and bonfire circles for evening socialising. The colour palette is earthy: cream, sage green, terracotta, and soft gold. Bohemian elements like macrame backdrops, wicker furniture, and vintage trunks as photo props add character. The key is intentional simplicity: elegant without being ornate.

Food Service Format

Farmhouse weddings favour interactive food experiences. Live pasta counters, wood-fired pizza stations, kebab grills set up on the lawn, and dessert tables rather than formal buffet lines. The food village concept works particularly well: scatter multiple themed food stations across the outdoor space so guests move between them, creating a festival-like atmosphere. For a North Indian family, add a chaat corner and a live dosa station alongside the traditional shaadi ka khana buffet.

Photography Advantages

Golden-hour lawn photography with fairy-light bokeh is the signature farmhouse shot. Couple portraits in garden settings, candid frames of guests lounging on floor cushions, aerial shots of the illuminated lawn at dusk, and food-styling photography at the live counters. The relaxed atmosphere also yields more natural candid moments than the structured environment of a palace or hotel.

Budget Range

Farmhouse-style weddings at Tivoli Royal Palace typically range from INR 15 lakhs to INR 50 lakhs depending on guest count, decor complexity, and the number of functions. Since Royal Palace does not have on-site accommodation, the venue cost is lower, but families need to budget separately for guest hotels nearby. The proximity to Delhi keeps vendor costs competitive as well.

Resort Wedding – Contemporary Luxury at Wedcation by Tivoli

Wedcation by Tivoli in Ambala introduces the resort wedding format to the destination landscape near Delhi. Located roughly 3.5-4 hours from the capital on NH44, the property combines modern architecture, a swimming pool, landscaped gardens, spa amenities, and 50+ contemporary rooms into a setting designed for multi-day celebrations that feel like a vacation for guests.

Ideal Guest Count

Resort weddings at Wedcation are best suited for 150-500 guests. The property's intimate scale creates a holiday atmosphere that larger venues cannot replicate. With 50+ rooms on-site, the majority of your guest list can stay at the property, which is the defining advantage of the resort format. For celebrations under 250 guests, the entire property can be exclusively booked, creating a private-resort experience.

Decor Style

Resort wedding decor emphasises clean lines, contemporary elegance, and integration with the outdoor environment. Think minimalist mandap designs with fresh flowers and drapery, pool-side ceremony setups with floating florals, lounge-style seating with modern furniture, and statement lighting installations. The colour palette tends toward softer tones: whites, pastels, champagne, and greenery. Tropical elements, palm fronds, monstera leaves, bird-of-paradise arrangements, work well against the resort backdrop.

Food Service Format

Resort weddings favour curated dining over mass catering. Think plated sit-down dinners by the pool for the sangeet, buffet brunches in the garden on the morning of the wedding, and cocktail-style service with canape trays and drink stations for the reception. Multi-cuisine menus with a focus on presentation and ingredient quality, rather than sheer volume, define the resort food experience. The on-site kitchen allows for customised tasting menus and chef-curated special menus.

Photography Advantages

The resort environment offers diverse backdrops within a compact space: pool-side portraits, garden-walk sequences, architectural shots against modern facades, spa-themed getting-ready photographs, and twilight shots with the pool reflecting fairy lights. The contemporary aesthetic also pairs well with drone videography, capturing the resort layout and surrounding greenery in establishing shots that set the scene for the wedding film.

Budget Range

All-inclusive resort wedding packages at Wedcation by Tivoli start at approximately INR 18 lakhs for 150 guests and scale to INR 55 lakhs for larger celebrations with premium decor and three-day formats. Accommodation is typically included in the package, which represents significant value: a two-night stay for 50+ rooms bundled with venue and catering is substantially more cost-effective than booking these separately.

How to Choose Your Destination Wedding Style

The decision between palace, farmhouse, and resort ultimately comes down to five questions:

1. What is your guest count? If you are hosting 500+ guests with extended family, the palace format at Heritage Palace gives you the space and infrastructure. For 150-400 guests who want a cohesive experience, the resort format at Wedcation is ideal. For 200-500 guests who want proximity to Delhi, Royal Palace's farmhouse style delivers.
2. Do you want on-site accommodation? If a residential, multi-day experience is non-negotiable, choose Heritage Palace or Wedcation, both have rooms on-site. If your guests prefer to stay in their own homes or nearby hotels, Royal Palace works well.
3. What is your decor vision? Opulent and royal? Palace. Earthy and relaxed? Farmhouse. Clean and contemporary? Resort. Your Pinterest board usually answers this question quickly.
4. How far are guests willing to travel? Royal Palace at 30 km from Delhi is the easiest for elderly guests and weekday logistics. Heritage Palace at 90 km is a comfortable highway drive. Wedcation at 200 km works best for a committed guest list who will stay for the full celebration.
5. What is your budget? If accommodation is included in your budget, the resort and palace models offer better all-in value. If you want to keep the venue cost lean and manage accommodation separately, the farmhouse style at Royal Palace starts at a lower base.

Many families visit all three properties before deciding. Tivoli's team arranges site visits on a single weekend, starting with Royal Palace in Faridabad, continuing to Heritage Palace in Rewari, and scheduling Wedcation Ambala for a separate trip or video walkthrough.