Intimate Wedding Invitations: Wording for Small Ceremonies

Some weddings have eight hundred guests and a band that starts at noon. Others have twenty people, one long table and a pandit who knows everyone by name. More families now choose the second kind.

A small wedding still needs an invitation. In some ways it needs one more, because each card goes to someone who truly matters. Below are our notes on writing and choosing a card for an intimate wedding, with sample lines for a home ceremony, a temple wedding, a registered marriage followed by dinner, and an announcement for the wider circle. We have used the names Anaya and Rohan throughout; change them to your own.

Why a small guest list deserves a beautiful card

When the list is short, every guest was chosen. The card is the first sign of that. A forwarded message with the date and a location pin tells people where to be; a proper invitation tells them they were wanted.

There is a practical reason too. Small weddings are often planned quickly, and guests hear about them in pieces. One clear card gathers the date, time, place and tone, and becomes the thing people look at again on the morning itself.

Personal, not apologetic

The most common mistake on an intimate wedding card is an apology. Families feel they must explain why the wedding is small, and the card ends up sounding sorry for itself: due to circumstances, only immediate family, and so on.

There is no need. A small wedding is a choice, and the card can say so with warmth.

• Speak as if to one person. The guest list is short enough that the card can sound like a letter.
• Leave out the reasons. Anyone close enough to be invited already knows them, or does not need to.
• Say what the day will feel like. A quiet morning, a few vows, lunch together. This sets expectations better than any instruction about dress or numbers.

Wording for a small ceremony at home

A home wedding is the most personal of all. The card can name the house, or simply say at home, and let the warmth do the rest.

From the parents:

With joy and a small circle of the people we love most, Sunita and Vikram Rao invite you to the wedding of their daughter Anaya with Rohan, son of Leela and Prakash Menon. At home, Saturday, 14 February, 10 in the morning.

From the couple:

We are getting married at home, with the people who raised us and the friends who stayed. Come for the vows and stay for lunch. Anaya and Rohan.

Seen hereMograMehendi invitation · Punjabi

Mogra feels right for a wedding at home. A little palm squirrel on a carved brass rod hauls up one more jasmine gajra to hang beside the rest, and an emerald curtain opens on the scene. It sits in our mehendi collection, but there is nothing in it that belongs only to the mehendi: it is a curtain, a string of jasmine and a busy squirrel, which is very much how a house feels on a wedding morning. It comes as two cards, the invitation and the details.

Wording for a temple wedding

Temple weddings are often the smallest of all, held early, with only family and a few friends. The card should be clear about the time and the place, because temple timings are rarely flexible and guests may not know the way.

Formal, from the parents:

With the blessings of our elders, we invite you to the wedding of our son Rohan with Anaya, at the temple in our village, on Sunday, 8 March, at 7 in the morning. Breakfast will follow at home.

From the couple, gentler:

A small wedding at the temple, early in the morning, with the people closest to us. Please come, and please come hungry: breakfast is after.

Our guide to wedding invitation wording in Hindi and English has blessing lines and Hindi phrasing you can place at the top.

Seen hereGhantiReception invitation

Ghanti has a little house sparrow clinging to the silk cord of a brass temple bell and tugging, so the bell swings and softly rings, while carved doors open on the scene. We drew it as a reception card, but its one bell and its carved doors suit a small temple wedding just as well. It comes as three cards: invitation, details and thank you.

Wording for a registered marriage followed by dinner

Many couples now marry quietly at the registrar's office and then celebrate with a dinner for family and friends. The card for this is really an invitation to the dinner, with the marriage itself mentioned as news.

Simple and warm:

Anaya and Rohan were married this morning, quietly, with our parents beside us. Tonight we would love to celebrate with you. Dinner at The Courtyard, Friday, 20 March, from 8 in the evening.

From the parents:

Sunita and Vikram Rao and Leela and Prakash Menon request the pleasure of your company at dinner, to celebrate the marriage of Anaya and Rohan.

Keep the card about the celebration and leave the paperwork out of it. The few who will be there for the signing will hear from you directly.

Seen hereChoodiReception invitation

For an evening dinner, Choodi is warm and close. A stack of ruby glass and gold bangles on a velvet cushion catches the candlelight, and one bangle rolls slowly across the table to rest against a single red rose. It is drawn in blush and gold across three cards, and feels like a table set for a few people.

An announcement card for the wider circle

Every small wedding leaves a larger circle of people who were not invited: colleagues, old school friends, cousins abroad, neighbours of many years. Most would still love to know, and an announcement card tells them kindly.

The tone is news, not invitation. There is no venue, no time and no request. A photograph or the couple's names and the date is enough.

We are married. Anaya and Rohan, 14 February, at home in Pune with our families. Thank you for all the love that got us here.

Anaya and Rohan were married on Saturday in a small ceremony at home. We hope to celebrate with you soon.

Use the last line only if a larger party may really follow. The announcement pairs well with the thank you messages for the few who came. Our note on wedding thank you messages has sample lines for those.

Choosing a quieter design

A small wedding does not need a grand card. It needs one that matches the scale of the day.

• Pick one scene. A single moment (a bell, a gajra, a candle) feels closer than a palace and a procession.
• Use softer colours. Ivory, jasmine white, emerald, blush and gold read as intimate. A riot of red and saffron can feel larger than the day.
• Consider foil. A gold foil print is quiet by nature: no landscape, no crowd, just metal on paper and light moving across it.

Seen hereKalashWedding invitation · Marwari

Kalash is a gold foil block print on cream cotton paper, with a mango-leaf toran across the top, a coconut-crowned kalash between two tall samai lamps, and rows of marigold butis. Light sweeps the foil and the flames flicker. It is traditional without being loud, which suits a small ceremony with elders present. It comes as three cards. Our wedding collection has more.

One card or a full set

For most intimate weddings, one card is enough. If the ceremony and the meal are on the same day and in the same place, a single invitation with the time and venue says everything.

A second card helps when there is more than one thing to explain, such as a temple ceremony in the morning and lunch at home. A third is worth it if you want a matching announcement or thank you. Beyond that, do what the day asks for and no more.

Ordering your card

Every Taarikh invitation is illustrated in our studio and personalised with your names, dates and venue. Choose a design, send us your wording on WhatsApp, and we will send a proof within 48 hours, with two rounds of changes included. Cards are 1080 by 1920, sized for WhatsApp and Instagram. A still card is ₹5,000 and an animated one, delivered as a video, is ₹10,000. If you would like an entirely new design drawn from your own idea, perhaps the house where you are marrying, that is ₹15,000, and we take only a few each month.