Inviting offers

Designer wedding cards have brought a fancy touch to the business of sending out invitations

Would you like a wedding card made from jamavaar with zardozi embroidery on the borders? Or, how about one from handmade paper with a few Swarovski crystals embedded in it? Not extravagant enough? How about one with miniature paintings?

Once upon a time, before Indian marriage ceremonies became a byword for gaudy excess, wedding cards were relatively simple affairs. Good quality paper and the lettering in gold was the height of style.

Nowadays, weddings are big business and anyone with money in the bank (or under the mattress) wants a designer wedding. And designer wedding cards are where it all begins.

Mind you, be prepared to dig deep into your pocket. The jamavaar card with zardozi costs Rs 325 each. If you are feeling a bit faint at the thought of spending so much money: relax. A handmade paper card with miniatures and semi-precious stones costs about Rs 200.

Says Kavita Nithyanand of Khushii, a Delhi-based design studio specialising in wedding invitations: "People look for cards which will serve as a memento to people long after the wedding. Also, everybody wants their invite to be unique."

Take, for instance, the Sahara India wedding, said to be the most extravagant nuptials that Lucknow has seen since the Nawabs of Oudh faded into history. The invitation "" for a few select guests "" came in a red and gold cardboard box.

Inside this box of Oriental magic was a beetelnut cracker, a silver sindoor box, traditional red and white kadas, a packet of turmeric and a shankh (conch).

Also, in the box was a silk scroll that explained the importance of each item in a Bengali wedding and the various ceremonies that take place when two Bengalis get married in traditional style. The invitation itself came in a pouch inside the box. The bill for the gift set-cum-card: between Rs 2,200 to Rs 2,700 per card.

That might be a bit too expensive for ordinary middle-class Indians. But remember that there's a choice when it comes to wedding cards. If paper and cloth are not your style, how about leather or glass?

A candle in a glass container with the invite printed on it will cost around Rs 600 per invite. While a leather set complete with a sweets box and a leather pouch which contains the invite will cost around Rs 500.

And if you want to bombard your friends and relatives with paper, you can send them a letter a few months before the wedding informing them of the dates so that they can make their reservations accordingly.

This is then followed by the actual invite and after the wedding the bride and groom send thank you cards to all the invitees. If you are really fussy, you must use the same theme for the pre-invite card, the invitation and the thank you note.

Says Nithyanand, "People come to us with either a theme or a motif in mind. You might want a particular colour code or may be a specific motif like the Om, we then design accordingly. Otherwise we suggest designs to them."

Of course, all these are designer products and you are paying for the design as much as for the product itself. For instance at Vivaha, a Delhi-based wedding solutions company specialising in wedding invitations which designed the Sahara invite, you pay between Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 as design fee.

"We then prepare a sample for you keeping your budget, concept and tastes in mind," says Jatin Virmani of Vivaha.

Once the sample has been finalised, they go ahead and complete your order. All this takes between 45 days to 60 days, so it's best to reach the design studio at least two months before the date from which you want to start distributing the invitations.

Vivaha even undertakes to distribute some invitations. They have designed special combos where the box is used to gift sweets or chocolates and the invite is used as the lid. Priced between Rs 450 and Rs 600 each, the combo includes the box, the sweets as well as distribution.

Says Virmani, "The client has to tell us how much he is willing to spend. Supposing he selects a design for Rs 200 and is willing to spend up to Rs 500 per box then we fill it with sweets worth Rs 300. Distribution across the country is undertaken by us and is part of the cost."