What to put on an Indian wedding website

A wedding website is read on a phone, in a hurry, by someone looking for one thing: what time, where, what to wear. Here is what to give each event, and what to leave out.

Start with the page every guest opens first

Your names, the dates, the city. One line that says what the link is (“Our wedding, 9 and 10 December, Igatpuri”). A guest who was sent the link by an aunt should know in two seconds whose wedding it is.

One page per event, not one long list

Indian weddings are three to six events over several days, often with different guest lists. Give each its own page with the same five things, in the same order:

1. The name of the event and, for guests who don’t know, one line on what it is. “Haldi: turmeric is applied to the bride and groom by family, in the morning, before the wedding.”
2. Day, date and time. Say the time guests should arrive, not the muhurat. “Arrive by 6:30 pm” beats “7:12 pm”.
3. The venue with a map that opens in Google Maps in one tap. For a hotel, the hall or lawn name. For a home, a landmark.
4. What to wear. A colour, a mood, or “anything you like”. Guests from outside the community want this most of all.
5. Anything they should bring or know. Flowers for the haldi, no shoes in the mandap, children welcome.

The events most couples list: mehendi, haldi, sangeet, the wedding (pheras, nikah, biye, muhurtham: use your word), the reception. Add the small ones only if guests are invited to them.

A page for guests who are travelling

If anyone is flying in: the nearest airport and station, how long the drive is, the hotels where rooms are held and how to claim one, who to call when the cab doesn’t come. For a destination wedding this page matters more than any other, and it should be ready first.

The reply

A short form at the end: who is coming, how many, which events, anything about food. One question per line. No account, no app. Tell guests when you’d like replies by.

Decide where the replies go before the link goes out: a sheet, an email, a WhatsApp message. The best form is the one you’ll actually read.

Your story, if you want it

A few lines on how you met, or none. It is the page couples agonise over and guests read last. A single sentence is enough; the pictures do the rest.

What to leave out

• The muhurat to the minute (keep it for the pandit).
• Long rules. Three lines of “please” is plenty.
• Gift registries, unless your families expect one. In India it reads differently.
• Anything that will change. Put it on the page, not in the message, so it can be corrected once.

Two languages?

English for the pages, and a blessing or a line in your own script on the opening page, is how most Indian couples do it. A full translation is rarely read; a word in Bengali or Tamil at the top is always noticed.

When to send it

The save-the-date two to three months out. The website link about six weeks before, once venues and times are fixed, in the same message as the invitation. A reminder with the link a week before each event. The link never changes; the pages do.