Wedding Invitation Checklist: What to Settle, Include and Check Before You Send

This checklist is for whoever in the family holds the invitation, from what to settle before writing to the replies after sending.

The wedding invitation checklist at a glance (shaadi card checklist)

Work through these six groups in order; the first four get the invitation ready to send.

1. Before you write

• Muhurat and each function's time, confirmed in writing
• Every venue booked for those hours
• Guest list in households, marked by function
• Language: Hindi, English, both, or the other family's
• Format: printed, image or PDF, video, link, or a mix
• Who sends, and who answers calls

2. On the card, in order

• Invocation
• The line that invites the guest (सादर आमंत्रित)
• The couple, with each side's parents and town
• Blessings from elders
• Date with its weekday, and the tithi if you print one
• Each function: date, time, venue, map or landmark, dress note
• विनीत, दर्शनाभिलाषी and स्वागतोत्सुक lists, then bal manuhar
• Notes: gifts, stay, parking, place of worship, help for elders
• How to reply, and by when
• A contact number for each side

3. For your format

• Printed: a paper proof, spares, names on envelopes, a landmark or tested QR code per venue
• Image or PDF: readable at phone width without zooming
• Video: names and date on screen from the start, within WhatsApp's size limit
• Link: preview, names, functions per guest, map pins, a test reply, calendar times, both languages, bigger text, privacy

4. Proofread

• Every name in both scripts, checked by its own family
• Every date against its weekday, and the year
• am or pm on every time; 12 noon or 12 midnight, never 12 pm or 12 am
• A muhurat after midnight with its night and its calendar date
• IST beside every time for relatives abroad
• Every number dialled, every map pin opened

5. Send

• First invitations as your family's custom has it, then the closest elders in person or by call
• A save-the-date 3 to 6 months ahead (6 or more for relatives abroad), the invitation 4 to 6 weeks ahead in town and 8 to 10 for travellers, as in our wedding invitation timeline

6. After sending

• One list of replies, counted by function
• A call to anyone still silent after the reply-by date
• A reminder before the first function
• Any change sent to everyone it affects, travellers first

What should you settle before writing the invitation?

Settle the muhurat, venues, guest list, language, format and who sends it before anyone drafts the wording, because changing any of them later means changing the card.

• The muhurat, in writing, from pandit ji or whoever fixes the time in your family's tradition. A card drafted around an 'almost fixed' date is the one that gets reprinted.
• Venues for the full hours. A lawn booked until 11 pm cannot hold phere at a 1:30 am muhurat.
• The guest list, in households. Count families, not heads, and mark who is asked to which function (colleagues perhaps only to the reception): this sets how many cards you print and what each names.
• The language. Hindi, English or both; ask what the other family's elders would like to read.
• The format. Printed, image or PDF, video, a link, or a mix such as cards for elders and a link for the rest. See our Indian wedding invitation ideas for the look, our shaadi invitation samples for what a link carries, and how to make a wedding invitation online to do it yourself.
• Who sends it. In many North Indian families each side sends its own card, naming its own child first; some send one joint invitation. Either way, swap the final text so both carry the same dates, times, venues and spellings.

What must a wedding invitation include, from top to bottom?

A North Indian wedding invitation runs from the invocation at the top to the contact numbers at the foot. The words for each part, in Hindi and English, are in our shaadi card matter guide.

1. Invocation, such as ॥ श्री गणेशाय नमः ॥, ੴ ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਪ੍ਰਸਾਦਿ ॥ or the Bismillah.
2. The invitation line: शुभ विवाह, then the parents' sentence asking the guest to come (आप सपरिवार सादर आमंत्रित हैं, or 'request the pleasure of your company'). Without it, a card announces a wedding but invites no one.
3. The couple: both names, each with parents and town (निवासी), in the honorifics your family's cards use, such as चि. and सौ.कां.
4. Blessings from elders under शुभाशीर्वाद, with स्व. before anyone who has passed away.
5. The date with its weekday: शुक्रवार, 11 दिसंबर 2026, not 11/12/26, which some relatives abroad will read as 12 November. Copy any tithi from pandit ji's note.
6. Each function on its own line: name, weekday and date, time, venue, a landmark or map, and a dress note where it helps (old clothes for the haldi, a shawl for phere under the open sky).
7. विनीत, दर्शनाभिलाषी and स्वागतोत्सुक: our guide to the meaning of each card word explains whose name goes under which.
8. Bal manuhar: a playful line from the children, if you want one.
9. Notes guests need: gifts, stay, parking, a place of worship's customs, help for elders (below).
10. How to reply, and by when: a number or a reply form, and a reply-by date that leaves the caterer time; what to ask is in our wedding RSVP guide.
11. A contact number for each side: someone who will pick up during the functions, such as an uncle or a cousin, not a parent at the mandap.

This order follows a North Indian Hindu card. A Punjabi or Anand Karaj card has its own order in places (see our Punjabi wedding card matter); a nikah or Jain card has its own opening line and ceremony words, so ask your elders.

Notes for the foot of the card

Two or three short lines cover what guests would otherwise call about on the day. Kartik and Naina's sample says "Valet parking at Gate 2. Ask for the Shekhawat wedding"; Gurnoor and Simar's asks guests to cover their heads at the Gurdwara Sahib and leave their shoes at the jora ghar; Dev and Ira's says "No gifts, please. Bring a song request instead."

What can a printed card, an image or PDF, and a link each carry?

All three can carry the same words; they differ in what a guest can do with them. The full comparison, video included, is in our guide to wedding invitation websites.

What does each format need before it goes out?

On top of the wording, each format has its own last checks.

Printed card

• Check a paper proof before the full run: small Devanagari and gold on maroon read worse on card than on screen.
• One card per household, plus spares; our wedding invitation cost guide works out the numbers.
• Names on envelopes in each family's script, ticked off the list as they go.
• Inserts for function-only guests, such as a reception card for colleagues.
• A landmark under each venue; if the printer adds a QR code, scan it on the printed card in dim light and print the address beneath.

Image or PDF

Read the venue line and phone number on the smallest phone in the family without zooming, and put a PDF's main function on page one. Contrast, lettering size and the right shape for a phone are in our five checks for whether a design reads on a phone.

Video

A video shows as a still picture until tapped, and each guest chooses what WhatsApp downloads automatically, so put the couple's names and the date on screen from the first second. WhatsApp's help page on sending media gives a default limit of 100 MB at 720p on a faster connection and 64 MB at 480p on a slower one, and 90 seconds for a status video (checked on 4 October 2026). Send it with a typed message carrying the dates and venues: nobody can search a video for an address.

Invitation link

Test it on a phone, as a guest will, before it goes beyond the family:

• The preview. Send it to a family member and check the picture and title. On our personal links the title names the guest, as on the Sharma Parivar link to our Kartik and Naina sample: "Sharma Parivar, you are invited · Kartik weds Naina".
• Personal names, spelt each family's way. Send groups the plain link, since a forwarded personal link still shows the first family's name.
• Functions per guest. For guests asked only to the reception, say, untick the other functions in our link maker before making their links, then open one to check.
• Map pins. Follow every Directions button to the venue's gate. For a farmhouse or village home that Google has no address for, make the map link from a dropped pin or a plus code.
• The reply. Have a relative fill in the reply form and send it, and check that it reaches the right phone with the right functions.
• Calendar times. Save one function to your calendar and check its day and time.
• Both languages. Read every function name, date and time in Hindi and in English; the two are written separately.
• Bigger text. Turn it on (बड़े अक्षर), under More, and read as your eldest guest will.
• Privacy. Our customer invitations are hidden from Google, but anyone with the link can open it: leave out what you would not print, such as photos meant only for close family.

How do you proofread a wedding invitation?

Proofread a wedding invitation for facts before style: names, dates, times, phone numbers and places are what guests act on. Have each side check it, one person reading aloud while another follows the draft.

• Names in both scripts, spelt as each family writes them: सुरेन्द्र or सुरेंद्र, Chaudhary or Choudhary. Our Kartik and Naina sample has राठौड़ in Hindi and Rathore in English; only the family knows which are theirs.
• Weekdays from a calendar, not memory, and for a January or February wedding, the year.
• AM and PM. On a Hindi card, write प्रातः, दोपहर, सायं or रात्रि before the time. In English, avoid 12 am and 12 pm, which NIST, the US national standards laboratory, calls ambiguous; write 12 noon or 12 midnight.
• IST for relatives abroad. India keeps UTC+5:30 all year, but Britain's clocks go back on 25 October 2026 (GOV.UK), so work out the difference for the wedding date, not today.
• Numbers and pins. Dial each printed number from a phone that does not have it saved (with +91 for guests abroad), and open every map link to the gate: venue names repeat across cities.

Hindi-card checks, such as one style of numerals throughout, are in our mistakes to catch before a Hindi card is printed.

How do you write the date when phere are after midnight? (raat 12 baje ke baad phere)

When the phere fall after midnight, write the night they belong to and the time, then the calendar date in brackets.

A panchang counts a day from sunrise to sunrise; Drik Panchang's marriage-dates page notes that hours past midnight carry the next day's date (checked on 4 October 2026). So pandit ji may call a 1:30 am muhurat "Friday night" while phones count it as early Saturday, and "Friday 11 December, 1:30 am" can send a literal reader a day early.

On an invitation link, the calendar entry for a 1:30 am muhurat must fall on the Saturday. Our Kartik and Naina sample sidesteps this: its Jaimala & Phere starts at 7:30 pm, with "phere at the midnight muhurat" in the function's note.

What is left once the invitation is ready? (sending, replies and changes)

Four jobs remain: send it in the right order and at the right time, count the replies, remind guests before the first function, and pass on any change.

In many Hindu families the first invitation goes to Ganesh ji and the family deity, then to the closest elders in person or by phone; customs differ. Relatives who travel should get a save-the-date message before train booking opens for their journey. The steps are in how to send wedding invitations on WhatsApp, and the weeks in when to send wedding invitations.

• Keep one list of replies, a column per function, held by whoever's number receives them, and call anyone still silent after the reply-by date. On our invitations each reply arrives as a WhatsApp message, with no dashboard, so copy it in the day it comes. How to count replies and chase the ones that never come has a tally sheet and the words to use.
• Remind before the first function with the time, venue and map; wordings are in our WhatsApp wedding invitation messages.
• Pass on changes, travellers first. Correct the invitation (a link is updated in place), message the guests it affects, and call anyone who has booked tickets.

Sadar Nimantran (sadarnimantran.in) is a studio that makes animated invitation websites for North Indian family functions; it does not print cards, and apart from the save-the-date and invitation film in its Bespoke package, it does not make image, PDF or video invitations.