Faith and ritual
Vaisakhi invitations
4 designs
Free with an account: your invitation as a link, a QR code and a short video for WhatsApp.
Phulkari
Punjabi darning embroidery as a stitch grid; uppercase and unafraid.
About this design
Punjabi darning embroidery: dense geometric fill worked from the back of the cloth, drawn here as a repeating stitch grid rather than as a border. Specifically Punjabi, which is why it carries the khanda and the Lohri bonfire and why it is offered on Vaisakhi and Gurpurab before any pan-Indian family is.
Bandhani
Tie-dye dots and mirror discs from Gujarat and Rajasthan, made to carry far.
About this design
Tie-dye dot fields and mirror-work discs, Gujarati and Rajasthani, at the loudest end of this file. It is the one family designed to be seen from across a school gymnasium, which is where the research found garba actually happens in the United States. Motion is festive here and on only two other families.
Marked by Sikh and Hindu families. Usually a gurdwara, a park and a hired hall, for family, the wider community and friends. 13–14 April. Free invitation designs with RSVP and calendar, and no account for your guests.
Each one is a different visual tradition rather than a recolour of the same card. Tap a colour underneath to change the palette; every design carries your own wording, date and place.
About Vaisakhi
- When it falls
- 13–14 April
- Who is usually asked
- family, the wider community and friends
- Where it usually happens
- a gurdwara, a park, a hired hall and a clubhouse
- How the invitation speaks
- Warm — first names, and it sounds like the person sending it
- Customary opening line
- “Vaisakhi diyan lakh lakh vadhaiyan”
- Colours it is associated with
- Saffron and yellow
- Marked by
- Sikh and Hindu
Wording that works
Vaisakhi mela
Nagar kirtan sets off at 11 from the gurdwara. Langar, bhangra and stalls in the park after.
Questions people ask
- Do my guests need an account?
- No, and they never will. A guest opens the link, types their name and taps Going, Maybe or Can't go. No password, no phone number, no app. If a page ever asks your guests for a password, it is not us.
- Can I text my guests?
- Only the ones who asked to be texted. A guest gives a number on their own — on our page, never yours — and confirms it with a six-digit code before we will send anything. You never see the number. Texts are limited to three per event so an invitation cannot become a mailing list, and cancelling or moving an event is never counted against that.
- Does it work in WhatsApp?
- That is what it is built for. Pasting the link shows a picture of the invitation with the date and who is hosting, before anybody taps — and the page opens in whatever browser your guest has, on any phone, including the ones that are not iPhones.
- Can guests add it to Google Calendar?
- Google, Apple, Outlook and anything else that reads a calendar file. There is a button on the invitation itself, and it works before anybody answers. If you change the time or the place afterwards, their existing entry updates — it does not add a second one — and cancelling removes it.