How you Invite..Matters!

Weddings in India are always in a mix-up of traditions, emotions, dreams and desires. In this whole journey, one of the most important ingredients is the ‘WEDDING CARD’. Irrespective of era, the wedding cards have been given strong importance and value. Though the modern world is going digital and tech-savvy, Indians still hold on to the importance of traditionally done wedding cards. An Indian wedding, as we all know is a beautiful journey, bringing together not only a bride and a groom, but also families and friends. Right from religious activities, traditional values and attires, delicious cuisine and colorful musical atmosphere, the ‘wedding’ includes all! At the stage when it’s nearing the D- day, the utmost importance of the card is at display.

A wedding card to a guest is a wedding’s first impression. The color combination, a stroke of design highlighting the occasion and details of bride- groom, venue, date and time, the wedding card holds every important detail at one single beautiful piece. Wedding cards would be like a movie trailer, leaving the guest wondering how the wedding would be like.

Let’s proceed to the ‘looks’… A wedding card has an artistic design or two, sometimes artwork of Indian God and Goddess or sometimes designs of props used during weddings like table, dholak or shehnaii or (musical instruments played during wedding functions) or rings or even a small shadow image of the bride and groom like the ones we see on top of a cake. Combined with beautiful and auspicious palette of colors and creative fonts putting together vital information completes the picture. Depending on the budget, a wedding card can even be done on satin and can include laser cut artworks, unique motifs and a small piece of craft as a decorative. An Indian wedding event starting from two days can go up to a week of celebration, hence detailing of events through wedding cards becomes extremely important. Supporting this is a route map to the venue, which is usually placed at the back of card. This along with some assortment of sweets makes the look of the card complete. Gods are among the supreme invites in an Indian wedding. It’s only after their blessings that the distribution of the cards begins.

The distribution in itself is an auspicious event. Parents of both the bride and groom exchange their version of cards and invite each other humbly. For a Hindu wedding, by applying Kumkum (Saffron Powder) on each other’s forehead they mark the beginning of the celebrations and that marks a small part of the entire wedding preparations.