Guide

A digital wedding invitation in India: how it works

What it is, how a guest opens it, what it costs, and what it replaces. In plain words.

What it is

A digital wedding invitation is a link. You send the link on WhatsApp; the guest taps it; the invitation opens in their browser like a small website made for one wedding: a cover that opens at a touch, the names, the functions with a map for each, a countdown, music, and a line from scripture if you want one. There is nothing to download and no app to install. It opens on a five-year-old Android as well as on a new iPhone, on a laptop, and on a television.

How it is made

You choose a card, fill in the names, the functions and the venues, and watch the real invitation change beside you as you type. When it reads right, you pay once and it becomes a link. Change anything later, as often as you like; the link stays the same, and everyone who already has it sees the new version. A single invitation here is ₹1,499, paid once, with nothing else to buy.

Each guest, by name

Every guest can have their own link, so the envelope says "Dear Shri Ramesh Kulkarni and family" rather than "Dear guest", and you can see who has opened theirs. Your guest list is encrypted on your own phone before it leaves it, with a key that only your private link holds, so the copy kept for you on our server is bytes we cannot read.

What it replaces, and what it does not

It replaces the PDF that nobody can read on a phone, the video that only looks right on a phone and gets cropped on a laptop, and the printed card for most people who live too far to visit. It does not replace the printed card for your parents' oldest friends, and it should not try to. Many families do both: a couple of hundred printed for the elders, a link for everyone else.

What it does not do

It carries no yes or no button, by design. An Indian card prints a family's names and numbers to call rather than a form to tick, so this one gives you the names and a Send button instead of a questionnaire. It does not need you to know anything about websites. And it stays online for good: you can change it freely until a fortnight after your last function, and after that it stays up exactly as it was, though it can no longer be edited.

Small things that matter

• The invitation stays online for good. Editing closes a fortnight after your last function; the link itself does not.
• If a guest has no smartphone, the same link opens from an SMS, and it can be read aloud over a phone call.

The card that fits

Fourteen cards, each one made for a kind of wedding rather than adapted to it. Open any of them in the gallery before you decide.

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More guides: Nikah invitation wording, Walima invitation wording, Mangni invitation wording, Hindu wedding invitation wording in English, South Indian wedding invitation wording, Engagement invitation wording.