# How to word an Indian wedding invitation, in English and Hindi
> Who invites whom, where the parents' names go, and ready-to-use wording for the wedding, sangeet, mehndi and reception in both languages.
- Source: https://amantrika.imswarnil.com/blog/how-to-word-a-wedding-invitation
- Author: Prachi Jain, Founder, Amantrika
- Published: 2 April 2026 (updated 8 August 2026)
- Category: Guides
- Tags: Invitation, Wording, Hindi, Etiquette
- Reading time: 4 min
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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
Where a parent has passed away, the usual form is "daughter of the late Shri Rakesh Sharma and Smt. Sunita Sharma". Some families prefer to place a small "in loving memory" line at the foot of the invitation instead. Both are correct; the family decides.
## 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.
| Part | What it says | Example |
|---|---|---|
| The invitation line | Who is inviting | *Mr. and Mrs. Rakesh Sharma request the pleasure…* |
| The names | Who is getting married | *Ananya with Rohan* |
| The date and time | When | *Sunday, 14 February 2027, from 7:00 pm* |
| The venue | Where | *The Leela Palace, Diplomatic Enclave, New Delhi* |
| The request | What to do next | *Kindly confirm your presence by 1 February* |
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.*
"Ananya Sharma" becomes "अनन्या शर्मा" — the same name in a different script. It never becomes a Hindi word that means something similar. This sounds obvious and is the single most common mistake in machine-translated invitations.
## 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?
On an invitation sent by the bride's family, the bride's name goes first; on one sent by the groom's family, the groom's. When both families invite jointly, alphabetical order or the order the families agree on is fine — there is no rule worth arguing over.
### Do I need Hindi on the invitation at all?
Only if some of your guests read it more comfortably than English. For many families that is exactly the case for the grandparents' generation, which is reason enough.