Festivals
Vishu invitations
4 designs
Free with an account: your invitation as a link, a QR code and a short video for WhatsApp.
Marigold
A garland and toran at the head of the page, drawn as geometry.
About this design
A garland across the top and a toran hung at the head of the page, drawn as botanical geometry rather than as photographs of flowers. Warm by construction: the marigold is what a doorway wears on the morning of almost every occasion in this taxonomy, which is also why the family suits so many groups and leads none of them.
Kasavu
Cream and one gold border: the Kerala sari's whole idea.
About this design
Cream and one gold border, nothing else — the Kerala sari, whose whole aesthetic is that restraint. Adding ornament to it would be the mistake; the family refuses motifs beyond the border and the pookalam.
Kolam
Dot-grid geometry from Tamil and Telugu doorsteps, drawn at dawn.
About this design
White dot-grid geometry on a warm ground, the way a Tamil or Telugu doorstep is drawn at dawn. Named kolam and not rangoli on purpose: alpana in Bengal and aripan in Bihar are cousins with their own names, and this family draws only the South Indian one.
Editorial
A serif at size, one hairline above the date, generous margins.
About this design
Type and rules and nothing else: a serif at a large size, a hairline above the date, generous margins. It is the formal end of the range — a fiftieth anniversary, a convention, a wedding whose hosts want no ornament at all — and it is the family that ages best, because there is nothing in it to date.
Marked by Hindu families. Usually at home and a temple, for family and friends. 14–15 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 Vishu
- When it falls
- 14–15 April
- Who is usually asked
- family and friends
- Where it usually happens
- at home and a temple
- How the invitation speaks
- Warm — first names, and it sounds like the person sending it
- Customary opening line
- “Vishu Ashamsakal”
- Colours it is associated with
- Gold, and the yellow of the kanikonna
- Marked by
- Hindu
Wording that works
Vishu at the Menons'
Kani at dawn for whoever is up. Sadya at one for everyone else.
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.