Varamahalakshmi pooja at home in Bengaluru

The pot, the face, the saree and the flowers are a few thousand rupees, and the brass pieces last for years. A decorator's backdrop or a caterer's lunch for 50 each costs more than all of that. You need neither, and no priest or draper either. Pick the one or two that matter to your family.

Doing the decoration yourself costs the least. Hang a silk saree of your own behind the kalasha as the drape and string flowers across it. Two kilos of chrysanthemum came to ₹900 to ₹1,600 at KR Market in festival week in August 2026, by our sum. A fuller drape takes more.

Flower and fruit prices here are from August 2026. They move every year with the rain and the crop, so read them as a guide (question 7).

1. Before the pooja

   Bathe and draw a rangoli. Fill the kalasha with rice, top it with mango leaves and a coconut, fix the face, and dress it in the saree, jewellery, flowers and fruit.

2. Ganesha first

   A short pooja to Ganesha before anything else.

3. The Varalakshmi pooja

   The pooja to the Goddess, and the vratha katha, read by the woman keeping the vratha.

4. The thread

   A sacred thread is tied on her right wrist.

5. Naivedya

   Obbattu, payasa and kosambari are offered.

6. The evening

   Married women visit each other's homes for haldi-kumkum, sweets and thamboola.

You can follow it from a book. The vratha katha is sold as a small book wherever pooja things are sold, in Kannada, Telugu and Tamil. This order of the day is karnataka.com's, and Karnataka Tourism describes the festival as kept by women, with the family joining in. Neither mentions a priest.

If you want a priest, ask at your nearest temple first. Book him as soon as your date is fixed, because every family wants one on the same morning. On one such day in January 2024, Deccan Herald found Bengaluru's freelance priests turning requests down. Ask what he brings, what you buy, and the dakshina, before the day. If your family is Telugu and he's Kannadiga, ask which katha he reads.

Our housewarming guide explains a priest's words, like dakshina and samagri, and what to ask about each.

No source we found says how long the pooja takes. Each of the good times that day is about two hours long (question 7).

A draper builds the figure, then dresses it. She shapes a body on the kalasha, pleats the saree to its size, pins it, and puts on the jewellery and garlands. When you ask her, find out if she brings the stand or body, the pins and the padding, and whose jewellery and saree go on. On the festival morning she's wanted in many homes, so fix the time she'll reach you, well before your good time.

A face on the pot, or a body with hands. A face sits on the kalasha by itself, but for a seated figure with hands you need a body or a stand. Online, full sets with a body, face, jewellery, saree and crown start at about ₹1,350 for a 12-inch set at Golden Collections, an online seller in Secunderabad, and run to ₹22,500 and more. Order well before the festival.

Or learn it once. In 2025 Asha Nagaraj, on mytribe, advertised a workshop on dressing the Goddess for 30 June, well before the festival. Ask her the fee and the next date. She wrote this in Kannada on Instagram that June:

In English: learn the art of dressing the Varamahalakshmi Goddess in a saree, with devotion, this festival.

What goes on the kalasha, and what each piece costs

Tap a number to see what it is and what it costs.

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1. 1

   The pot

   ₹1,380 to ₹1,900

   A brass kalash, 6.5 to 8 inches, at Giri. Copper or silver works too

   Add to my request: The pot
2. 2

   The face

   ₹225 zinc, ₹1,500 brass

   Giri's 7-inch zinc face and The Pooja Store's 7.5-inch brass one. Silver starts at ₹13,626 at a Coimbatore jeweller

   Add to my request: The face
3. 3

   The crown

   ₹1,375

   Stone-set, at Giri

   Add to my request: The crown
4. 4

   The necklace

   ₹1,660

   Stone-set, at Giri

   Add to my request: The necklace
5. 5

   The saree and blouse piece

   ₹540 to ₹550

   A 6 m satin saree for ₹465 and a blouse piece for ₹75 to ₹85, at Giri. A pre-stitched kalash saree is about ₹1,060

   Add to my request: The saree and blouse piece
6. 6

   Kumkum and turmeric

   ₹50 for 30 packets

   At Giri. The same packets go in the thamboola (question 6)

   Add to my request: Kumkum and turmeric

Brass or silver. Both are used: karnataka.com describes a silver or brass face fixed to the kalasha. Silver is sold by weight, so its price follows the silver rate. The smallest plain silver face we found weighs 47.4 g and costs ₹13,626, at a Coimbatore jeweller; no Bengaluru jeweller lists one. Brass costs about a ninth as much, lasts for years, and the family sees the face dressed in a saree and garlands either way.

A boxed kit, or the pieces one by one. Zishta's Varalakshmi set, at ₹5,585, has a brass kalash, a Lakshmi face, a brass bowl, a wooden stand and a saree with a blouse piece, and takes 5 to 7 days to arrive. The pot, a brass face, the saree and a blouse piece bought one by one come to about ₹3,400 to ₹4,000. So the kit's extra ₹1,600 to ₹2,200 pays for the stand, the bowl and buying it all in one order. The listing also promises some pooja essentials without naming them, and names no flowers, fruit or coconuts.

Buy early, except the flowers. On 21 August 2026, KR Market, Town Hall and Mysore Bank Circle jammed so badly that police cleared roadside vendors, ETV Bharat reported. Buy the pot, face, saree, rice and coconut the week before.

The extra money buys more to look at. At the lighter end there's one thing: an arch of flowers on a plain wall, and the idol in front. At the fuller end the decorator builds a whole setting: a wall of leaves behind, an arch in front, silver elephants and lamps on either side, a cloth on the floor. That's more pieces to bring, set up and take back. Across the city, a backdrop about 6 to 8 feet each way, a cloth drape or banana leaves hung with flower strings, costs about ₹10,000 to ₹25,000, and a wall covered in flowers or a mandap built round the Goddess about ₹20,000 to ₹50,000, as our pooja decoration guide found. Dream Decor priced the same kind of setup for Ganesha in September 2025: one rose canopy with bells at ₹14,999, and a mandir arch with panels, roses on every edge and a chandelier at ₹24,999.

Real flowers cost more. Dream Party Link's backdrop starts at ₹10,000 in artificial flowers and ₹20,000 in real ones, prices he gave for Ganapati and festival backdrops. Real flowers smell and look fresh, and they're bought for your day at that week's price.

Under ₹10,000 you get garlands more than a built backdrop. Sankalana Decorations told us simple marigold garland work at home sits under ₹10,000, and a floral backdrop above it. Zunaira Events' artificial floral decor starts at ₹5,000. Of the 22 people who asked us for Varamahalakshmi decoration in 2026 and typed a budget of their own, 17 planned ₹10,000 or less.

The extras. The decorator brings the backdrop and the flowers. Ask who brings the face, saree and jewellery for the Goddess, and who dresses her: Dream Party Link charges for dressing her on top of the backdrop. He also charges ₹600 to ₹700 or more for each brass lamp or brass pot. Dream Decor adds ₹1,000 to ₹1,500 for transport in the city.

More styles, and what each costs, are in our pooja decoration guide.

A cook in your kitchen costs a day's wages, and you plan the menu and buy the groceries. A caterer brings the food, serves it and clears up.

Caterers start at 30 or 50 plates. HiiBangalore's and KVG's published packages run ₹300 to ₹420 a plate at 30 to 50 plates. Bhandary's Kitchen's muhurtham lunch is ₹400 to ₹600 a plate for 50 or more, plus 5% GST and transport, and its ₹600 menu has a payasam and a choice of holige or chiroti. For 20 guests, no caterer we found publishes a price. HiiBangalore's Regular package includes serving staff, banana-leaf service and the clearing up; tables, chairs and a tent are extra.

The blouse piece is most of a thamboola. It's ₹75 to ₹85 at Giri, and a kumkum and turmeric packet under ₹2. Bangles, betel leaves and a banana or two usually go in too. Smart Gifter's ready hamper, with a thali holder, a blouse piece, kumkum and bangles in a wrap, is ₹280 each for 15 or more, plus delivery: ₹14,000 for 50.

No plastic plates. Plastic plates and cups have been on India's single-use plastic ban list since July 2022, so serve on banana leaves or steel.

Book once your date is fixed, and earlier for a dawn slot. The decorators here need a day or two to a week's notice, and Dream Decor holds a date only once the advance is paid. But every home wants the same Friday, and each decorator or draper can only be in one home at a time. If you want a particular person at dawn, book them first.

Set up the night before, and put fresh garlands on at dawn. On a working Friday this is how it fits. About one in four of the 52 requests we had for Varamahalakshmi in 2026 asked for the setup the evening before or before dawn, and Zunaira Events does late-night and early-morning setups for good times.

Flowers cost two to three times as much that week. At KR Market on 20 August 2026, chrysanthemum was ₹450 a kilo against ₹150 a week earlier, and jasmine ₹1,200 against ₹500. Flowers won't keep for a week. So make the backdrop artificial and keep fresh flowers for the Goddess, or have your decorator fix the flower price in the quote: Dream Decor builds the festival rise into hers when she gives it. Apples, pomegranates, coconuts and the dry things can be bought a week early.

In 2026 the festival was a restricted holiday in Karnataka, so for many it was a working day.

Taking it down. It's in Mahinava Events' price. Dream Decor takes back everything she brought, because it's rented. Zunaira Events collects his frames, stands, lights and props the next day, and on a banana-leaf or marigold job he clears the fresh waste too. Ask Dream Party Link, Sankalana Decorations and Decor Your Dreams when they'll come.

If the date might move, pick for that. If your periods could fall on the day and your family would move the pooja to another Friday, a decorator who moves the date for free matters more than one with a smaller advance.

If they cancel on you. We hold no written rule from any of the six for a decorator cancelling on you, so ask for the advance back in full, in writing, before you pay. Pay by UPI and keep the WhatsApp thread, so there's a record of what you paid and what was promised. If you book through us, the booking comes with an agreement on what's included and what it costs, and if something isn't going to plan, a person here sorts it out.