Engagement Invitation Wording in English and Hindi

An engagement invitation is smaller and lighter than a wedding card, but families still worry about getting it right. It is often the first formal announcement that two families are coming together, so the names and the tone matter.

Here are wording samples you can adapt, along with a few notes.

What an engagement invitation needs

Keep it simple. You need:

• The names of the couple
• Who is inviting, usually the parents of one or both
• What the function is called in your family: engagement, sagai, ring ceremony, mangni, or something else
• Date, time and venue
• A line asking guests to confirm, if you need numbers

You do not need the long family lists that go on a wedding card. Save those for the wedding.

Formal English, parents as hosts

Mr and Mrs Rajesh Kapoor
request the pleasure of your company
at the engagement ceremony of their son
Arjun
with
Meera
daughter of Mr and Mrs Anil Bansal
on Sunday, 9th March, at 7 pm
at The Grand Banquet, Lucknow

When both families are hosting together, write both sets of parents at the top:

Mr and Mrs Rajesh Kapoor and Mr and Mrs Anil Bansal
invite you to celebrate the engagement of
Arjun and Meera

Warmer, family style

With great joy, the Kapoor and Bansal families
invite you to the ring ceremony of
Arjun and Meera.
Come and bless the couple as they begin a new journey together.
Sunday, 9th March, 7 pm onwards, The Grand Banquet, Lucknow

When the couple invites

This is common when the couple are working professionals living away from home and the function is mostly for friends.

We are getting engaged!
Arjun and Meera
would love you to join us for the ring ceremony
on 9th March in Lucknow.
Dinner and dancing to follow.

Hindi wording

॥ श्री गणेशाय नमः ॥
सादर आमंत्रण
हमारे सुपुत्र चि. अर्जुन
की सगाई
आयु. मीरा (सुपुत्री श्री अनिल बंसल एवं श्रीमती रेखा बंसल)
के साथ दिनांक 9 मार्च, रविवार को सायं 7 बजे
द ग्रैंड बैंक्वेट, लखनऊ में संपन्न होगी।
आप सपरिवार सादर आमंत्रित हैं।
निवेदक: कपूर परिवार

Check the honorifics. "चि." is for the boy and "आयु." or "सौ.कां." for the girl, depending on your region. Elders will notice if they are mixed up.

Roka and engagement are not always the same

In many North Indian families, roka is a smaller ceremony that happens first, where the families formally agree to the match, often with just close relatives. The engagement or ring ceremony comes later and is bigger. Some families combine the two. Our guide to the roka ceremony explains the difference in more detail.

If you are holding a roka with only immediate family, you probably do not need an invitation at all. A phone call is enough.

When to send

Engagements are usually planned on shorter notice than weddings. Two to four weeks ahead is common. If guests need to travel, try to give them at least three weeks.

Including a few details

A few small lines make life easier for guests:

• Dress code, if there is one. "Indo-western" or "Pastels please" saves a lot of questions.
• Whether dinner is served. Guests plan their evening around this.
• Map location. Especially for farmhouses or newer venues that are hard to find.

Engagement and wedding together

Some families hold the engagement a day before the wedding, as part of the same set of functions. In that case, put it on the wedding invitation as one of the events instead of sending a separate card.

A short message to go with it

The line you send with the invitation matters as much as the card. For elders, keep it respectful and simple:

Namaste Mausiji, Arjun's engagement is fixed for 9th March in Lucknow. Sending the invitation here. Please do come and bless them.

For friends, you can be playful:

It's official! Arjun and I are getting engaged on 9th March. Details are in the link. Don't you dare miss it.

In Hindi, for relatives:

नमस्ते, अर्जुन की सगाई 9 मार्च को लखनऊ में तय हुई है। निमंत्रण भेज रहे हैं। आप सपरिवार ज़रूर आइए।

Small mistakes to avoid

We see the same few slips on engagement cards. The day of the week does not match the date. Only one family's name appears, when both families are hosting. The time says "evening" with no hour, so half the guests arrive at six and the other half at nine. And the venue is written as just a hall name, which nobody from out of town can find. Read it out loud once to someone in the family before you send it. That catches most of these.

Sending it

Most engagement invitations go out on WhatsApp now. The same rules apply as for wedding invitations: always write a personal line before the link, call the elders, and avoid dropping it in a large group. Our WhatsApp etiquette notes cover this.

A note from our side

Our ready designs on the site are built for weddings. For engagements and ring ceremonies, we make the invitation on request: message us on WhatsApp with the names, date, venue and the look you want, and we will share a sample and the price. If you like the feel of one of our wedding designs, for example the simple Saral or the painted Torana, mention it and we will match the style.

And if you are already thinking ahead to the wedding, our Hindi and English wedding wording samples follow the same patterns, so the two invitations will feel like part of one story.

An engagement is a happy, slightly nervous time for both families. Keep the invitation short, warm and correct, and let the function itself do the rest.