Most wedding invitations in Pakistan now travel the way everything else does: as a message in a family group. A digital invitation is made for exactly that. Here is what happens when you send one, and how to make it land well.
One link, made for a chat
When you publish your invitation it gets its own link, such as invitationarts.com/i/hamza-noor. You choose the ending yourself, so it can carry your names.
Paste that link into a chat and WhatsApp turns it into a preview card before anyone taps it:
- the title is your names, such as "Hamza & Noor";
- the line beneath is the opening words you wrote, or a simple "You are invited" if you chose a verse instead;
- the picture is your own photo if you added one, or otherwise the cover of your design: its closed doors, curtains or sealed envelope.
So even an aunt who never opens links can see at a glance whose wedding it is.
What your guests see when they tap
The invitation opens in the phone's own browser. There is nothing to install, no account to make and no password to remember.
It begins with your design's scene coming alive at a tap: doors swing open, curtains part or a seal breaks, and your names appear. After that come the pages of the invitation itself:
- your families and the words you chose to open with;
- a card for each function with its venue, its times and one tap for directions;
- a countdown to the day, and a way to save each function to the guest's calendar;
- unless you turn it off, a page where guests leave a wish or a dua for you, which only you can read.
If you turn on Ask guests to reply when you build it, there is also a page where each guest says whether they are coming. The reply needs only a name, so older relatives can manage it without help.
Sending it well
- Send it to the family group first, then on its own to the elders who will not scroll back through a busy group.
- Pin the message in the group, so the link is easy to find on the day.
- Send a reminder a few days before, with the same link. It always shows the invitation as it is now, so nobody is looking at an old time.
- Different circles, different functions. If some guests are invited to the mehndi and not the walima, send each circle its own link. Here is how.
When something changes
A printed card cannot be corrected once it is in the post. A link can. If the time or the venue of a function changes, edit it and everyone who opens the link from then on sees the new details. The names, the dates and your opening words are fixed once you publish, and this guide explains why and how to have them corrected.