Stationery

Top Desi Wedding Card and Indian Wedding Invitation Vendors in Texas - Dallas, Houston, Austin

Once your date, venue, and guest list have been ironed out, it’s time to officially extend wedding invitations to your loved ones. Wedding cards do a dual job of communicating the needed details for a guest and setting the celebratory tone for your wedding. Don’t forget the optional save the dates and other stationery items like signage and place cards as well! Scroll down to find a vendor for your Desi wedding invitations, and scroll to the bottom to read FAQs before selecting a wedding invitation vendor and making sure you ask them the right questions.

FAQ

Where can I find wedding invitations for my South Asian wedding?

You’re in luck! We have curated designers and printers from Texas but also from other states and India to help you design your invitations. Whether you want to pick something off the shelf with a South Asian or modern twist or want to create bespoke invitations, The Desi Bride has brands that offer both services.

How much should Desi wedding invitations cost?

Wedding invitation pricing can range from free (certain evites) to $2 to $10+ per invite without postage. Stationery prices depends on multiple factors:

Number of inserts: South Asian weddings, especially Indian weddings, have several events. You can either choose to send one insert with all the key events or send multiple inserts (depending on which guests are invited to which events). Are you planning to send a separate insert for the Ganesh Sthapana, Mehendi, Baraat Entrance / Wedding Mahurat, and Reception? More inserts will increase the price.
Paper quality: Depending on the quality of the paper and the thickness, price will change.
Custom Design: Custom designs that require graphic design, painting, or any artistic work will cost more.
Envelope and Shipping: Will your invitation fit in an envelope with a first-class stamp, or are you planning to create a luxurious box or uniquely shaped envelope, which will require higher postal fees?
Volume: Finally, typically the higher quantity of invitations you order, the per card price will go down.

When should I send wedding invitations?

If you have guests traveling from out of town, we recommend sending invitations 3: 4 months in advance give them enough time to make travel plans. If you want to make sure your guests block off the date, you can always send a save-the-date after you’ve finalized the venue and guestlist (6: 8 months in advance).

If you send the invitations 3: 4 months in advance and you have different priority tiers of guests (definitely invite in round one, maybe invite if there is space in round two), it will also give you enough time to get the first batch of RSVPs before sending out round two invites. You don’t want to send round two invites the week or two weeks before the wedding, because your guests will definitely know they were last-minute invites and most people will already have plans (in the post-pandemic world at least!).

Do I need to send both invitations and save the dates?

Not necessarily. You and your partner won’t be able to confirm a date until the venue has been booked, and at that point, you’ve secured the details necessary for the invitation. If you haven’t figured out additional logistics for your guests (transportation, stay, meals), don’t fret! This information can all be gathered and communicated online, either through a customized wedding landing page or email.

With that said, if you have secured your venue 10: 12 months in advance, guests will not be able to RSVP that far in advance. In this case, you may still want to your guests to bookmark a date (especially if it is a popular weekend like Memorial Day, Fourth of July, or Thanksgiving weekend), a printed save-the-date (card or magnet) or simple e-vite can do the trick.

What information should I include in the wedding invite?

At a minimum, your wedding invitation will need your and your partner’s names, the wedding date/time, the address of your venue, and further contact information (an email/phone number of a particular point person, or the web address of your wedding landing page). However, the Desi wedding invite is infamous for a few other key details:

Names of parents and immediate ancestors on both partner’s sides
Invitations worded as “from” the parents of the couple, for example, “Mr. Ashok and Mrs. Meena Pai cordially invite…”
Timings/descriptions of key religious ceremonies from the Baraat to the auspicious Muhurat

Whose name should go first on the invite?

Traditionally, the bride’s name (and her parents’ and grandparents’ names if they are hosting the wedding) will go first. In a same sex marriage, you can choose to go in alphabetical order or in any order that sounds right to you.

Is it okay to have a grown-up affair, without the little ones?

In Desi weddings, family means the entire family (including the little ones). Due to guest count restrictions, noise levels, or the ambiance you’d like to exude, you may choose to not invite kids to some or all of the events. While it was traditionally frowned upon not to invite the whole family and you might be nervous about offending someone, it is becoming more common to invite less than the whole family.

Brides has shared tips on how to kindly say “adults only” without offending most guests (there will always be a few complainers regardless of what you do).

Make sure you are clear on the invitation and mention that it is an “adults only” affair
Include a question on your website FAQ “Can we bring kids?” and call out that while you love the little ones, your wedding will be an “grown ups only” event.
Informally spread the word. You can have your parents talk to their aunty and uncle friends and have them casually pass on the message to other guests, so it feels like a casual message that everyone is well aware of.

How do I kindly say adults only or in other words, no kids please?

To clarify the number of people invited per family, we recommend including guest count on the invitations and response card. Even if it is a family of four, including two kids, you can mention “We have reserved two spots for you” in the invitation or RSVP response card (or online RSVP), clearly indicating that only two people are invited. You may have families that decide to swap a parent for a child, so if you want to move forward with parents only, below are some ideas on how to clarify this message without sounding rude, courtesy of The Wedding Playbook.

“Although we love your little ones, this is an adult only affair.”
“Due to limited venue space, adults only please.”
“We love your kids but thought you might like a night off. Adults only please!”
“To give all our guests the opportunity to celebrate without having to worry about little eyes and ears, we politely request no children. We hope you understand!”
“We adore your children, but we ask that only adults attend.”

How can I be more sustainable and eco-friendly with invitations?

The Desi Bride recently published an article on how to host a sustainable Indian wedding. Invitations are one of the easiest ways to save the environment and look out for our global footprint. The average Indian wedding wastes A LOT of paper and plastic. Below are a couple of ideas on how to be more eco-conscious.

Evites: Companies like Customizing Creativity will create beautiful digital images or video invitations with Indian, Pakistani, and other Desi influences. You can work with them to be as modern or traditional as you like and personalize your digital invites beyond style to songs and more. There are also companies like Mint and Paperless Post that offer lots of evites templates for you to pick and choose from and are not just an eco-conscious alternative but also a pocket-friendly alternative to traditional paper invitations (no printing, no mailing). If your family wants to have a traditional Kankotri, then you can always have a few cards printed to distribute to close family and friends and send evites to your other guests.

Biodegradable seed paper: As going green has constantly been a topic of the house, companies have created new materials for stationery. Plantable wedding invitations are a great alternative to your traditional paper. They are often made out of 100% recycled paper, cotton, or other materials and contain wildflower seeds that grow in the soil. The icing on the cake is that they are printed with carbon-neutral energy. Your guests can actually plant these invitations in their backyard and watch them grow as a celebration of your love. Plantables specializes in seed paper invitations and has worked with many families to create beautiful traditional and bespoke biodegradable invitations with vegan and organic ink.

Recycled paper: Lastly, there are cards made with 100% recycled paper from companies like Forever Finances in California. You can get a gorgeous eco-chic look and feel good knowing that your invitations did not result in more trees being cut down!

How do I prioritize my Desi guestlist?

Creating and finalizing the guestlist for a Big Fat Desi Wedding is one of the most stressful, controversial, and pivotal decisions in wedding planning! It can cause a lot of wedding drama but is crucial to think through as you finalize the budget and start your venue hunt. Even Priyanka Chopra opened up with how her mom was upset about their guest count. "Usually, Indian weddings are like 1,000 people at least. We only had 200 people, which was mostly just family because both of us have giant families. We just wanted to keep it super intimate, about just family. For an Indian family and an Indian wedding, for sure, that’s [a low guest count]. My mother was so upset with me the entire time. She was like, 'I need to have another party for the 150,000 people I know. How can I not invite my jeweler? How can I not invite my hairdresser?’”

Having seen countless couples go through this process, we’ve included recommendations on how to plan your South Asian wedding guestlist with fewer heated conversations.

If you have a dream venue with a limited guest count, use that guest count as a frame of reference and split the number to account for both set of parents’ guest count and you and your significant other’s friends. This allows all groups to work backward with their guest count cap and decide who will be prioritized for round one invitations. Booking the venue may make your life easier and hold you accountable for sticking to the cap.
Invite friends but don’t feel the need to invite their kids, especially if you don’t know them well.
Split up which events you invite guests to. We’ve seen people invite not as close friends to the reception but not the wedding ceremony or sangeet.
After you jot down everyone you potentially think you might want to invite, prioritize them into two to three different tiers. You should go through each guest and place them into priority 1 (definitely invite), priority 2 (invite in round 2 if there’s space), and so on. Setting RSVP deadlines will be important, so you know how many empty seats you have.
If your parents refuse to budget on guest count, just tell them how Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas only had 200 guests!

Besides invites, what other stationery needs will I have at my Desi wedding?

While invitations are one of the first things you will iron out, but there are several other stationery details you may want to consider during wedding planning. These items can accentuate your theme and design, and add even more personalization to your wedding.

Wedding Program: If you are having a non-English ceremony with the pandit talking in Hindi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu or another language, it’s always helpful for guests to reference a program to follow the ceremony. Hindu weddings can be 2: 3 hours with a series of events from the Baraat, Milni, and Jai Mala to the Agni Poojan and Pheri. You can use a pre-existing template or work with a designer to create a customized program. Either work with a printing company to have them printed, or go green and have digital programs that you delegate to your maid of honor or best man to send to guests.
Signage: Signage is where you can get creative and add to your overall design aesthetic. Signage includes everything from a “Welcome to Arjita & Vedang’s Wedding” board to your table assignments chart and table signs. We recommend incorporating elements from your design, like color palette, flowers, and overall theme, into these signs to help them add to the ambiance.
Name Place Cards: If you are planning a seated reception dinner, then you can choose to print out place cards and leave them at seats to create a formal setting. You can either print traditional place cards or get creative with the many options from photo coasters to bookmarks and wooden die cuts.
Guestbook: Guestbooks have changed significantly in the last few years. From wooden Jenga boards to a treasure chest of tips for the married couple, you have unlimited creative options. If you want to move forward with a traditional guest book, you can work with a designer to create a custom guest book or purchase an off-the-shelf one from Amazon.