A Hindu wedding invitation has more work to do than a Western one, because it is not inviting people to an event — it is inviting them to a week of them, each with a different guest list, a different dress code and often a different city. Here is what that means in practice.
Five functions, five guest lists
Haldi and mehndi are usually family and close friends. Sangeet widens to the extended circle. The ceremony itself is governed by the muhurat and can fall at an hour that genuinely affects who can attend. The reception is everyone. Treating these as one invitation with one RSVP produces a single number that is wrong for four of them — which is why every function here carries its own per-event RSVP.
Open the way families expect
A Ganesh invocation or a Sanskrit shloka at the top, the hosting families named before the couple, then the occasion. That order matters to elders and costs nothing on a phone, provided the names, date and city arrive immediately after it rather than three screens down. Our invitation wording samples cover the common forms.
Muhurat timings that can change
Ceremony timings move. A printed card cannot be corrected once it is in five hundred homes; a link can. When the muhurat shifts, you edit the invitation once and every guest sees the new time — no reprint, no apology round on WhatsApp, nobody arriving an hour late because they were holding the old card.
Regional weddings, one structure
A Marathi wedding has a Sakharpuda and a Kelvan; a Punjabi wedding has a Chooda and a Jago; a Tamil wedding has a Nichayathartham. The names differ, the structure does not — a sequence of named functions, each with its own timing, venue and guests. Name them as your family does and the invitation follows. Our guide to Maharashtrian wedding traditions is one worked example.
Outstation family, planned for
Indian weddings pull relatives across states and often across countries, and they need more than a date. Nearest airport and station, travel time to the venue, which hotels have rooms held, whether transfers are arranged. Put that on the invitation and you stop fielding the same six questions individually — see managing outstation wedding guests.
It is a wedding website, not just a card
Each template is the front of a full wedding website: the schedule, maps, your story, a gallery, a moderated guestbook, and guest list management underneath — so the number you hand the caterer comes from what guests actually said rather than an estimate.