How to word an Indian wedding invitation, in English and Hindi

Invitation wording is where families get stuck, because it is not really a writing problem. It is a question of who is inviting whom, and that is a family decision with the words attached.

Decide who is inviting first

Everything else follows from this. There are three common arrangements.

The bride's family invites. The oldest convention, still the most common. The parents' names lead, the daughter is named as their daughter, and the groom is named with his parents.

Mr. and Mrs. Rakesh Sharma request the pleasure of your company at the wedding of their daughter Ananya with Rohan son of Mr. and Mrs. Vijay Mehta

Both families invite together. Increasingly the default, and the least fraught. Both sets of parents appear, and the couple's names sit together.

Mr. and Mrs. Rakesh Sharma and Mr. and Mrs. Vijay Mehta invite you to celebrate the marriage of Ananya and Rohan

The couple invites. Correct, modern, and increasingly common when the couple is paying. The parents are usually still named, out of respect rather than obligation.

Together with our families, Ananya and Rohan invite you to share in the joy of their wedding

The parts of the invitation, in order

An invitation answers five questions, in this order, and the reason the order matters is that guests stop reading once they have what they need.

Anything beyond these five — the dress code, the hashtag, the parking note — belongs further down, not woven into the invitation itself.

Hindi wording you can use directly

If your guests read Hindi more comfortably than English, the Hindi should be the invitation, not a translation printed underneath it as an afterthought.

The invitation line:

सादर निमंत्रण श्री एवं श्रीमती राकेश शर्मा अपनी सुपुत्री अनन्या के शुभ विवाह के अवसर पर आपको सपरिवार आमंत्रित करते हैं

A commonly used blessing line:

शुभ विवाह ॐ गणेशाय नमः

The request to attend:

आपकी उपस्थिति ही हमारा आशीर्वाद है। Your presence is our blessing.

Wording for the other functions

Each function has its own tone, and the invitation reads better when the wording matches it rather than repeating the wedding's formality five times.

Mehndi

Informal, usually daytime, usually the bride's side.

Bring your hands and your appetite — Ananya's mehndi Friday, 12 February, from 11 am at the Sharma residence

Sangeet

The loudest function gets the least formal invitation.

An evening of songs, dancing and questionable choreography. Sangeet · Saturday 13 February, 7 pm

Haldi

Wear something you don't mind ruining. Haldi · Saturday 13 February, 10 am

Reception

Back to formal, and often a wider guest list than the wedding itself.

Mr. and Mrs. Vijay Mehta request the pleasure of your company at a reception in honour of Ananya and Rohan

Small things that are worth getting right

• Spell out the date. "Sunday, 14 February 2027" is unambiguous in a way that "14/02/27" is not, particularly for guests abroad.
• Give a start time you mean. If the muhurat is at 8:40 pm, say so. Guests who arrive at a stated 7 pm and wait two hours remember it.
• Say what you want back. "Kindly confirm by 1 February" gets responses. "RSVP" alone does not.
• Name a person to contact, not just a number. People are far more likely to call "Kunal (brother of the groom)" than an unattributed mobile number.
• Check every name with the family it belongs to. Spelling, initials, honorifics. This is the one error nobody forgets.

Frequently asked questions

Should the invitation come from the couple or from the parents?

Traditionally from the parents of the bride, and increasingly from both sets of parents together. If the couple is hosting themselves, inviting in their own name is entirely correct — the phrasing simply changes from 'request the pleasure' to 'together with our families, we invite you'.

Whose name goes first on an Indian wedding invitation?

Do I need Hindi on the invitation at all?