Wording guide
Bengali wedding invitation wording: the biyer card, the bou bhaat and more
By the Wishly team · Updated
A Bengali wedding invitation opens with Om Prajapataye Namah, often beside a butterfly, and reads as a personal letter from the bride's or the groom's father, beginning Mahashay or Mahashaya. The bride's family invites guests to the biye and the groom's family to the bou bhaat, so there are usually two cards.
Here are the lines in the order Bengali cards print them, samples in Bengali transliteration and in English, and the etiquette of the biyer card.
The order of lines on a biyer card
The Bengali card is short and personal, and it gives two calendars, the Bengali date and the English one. The lagna, the auspicious time, often falls late in the evening, and the card says so.
- Om Prajapataye Namah at the top, with the butterfly.
- A salutation, Mahashay or Mahashaya, as at the start of a letter.
- The father's invitation in the first person, naming his daughter or son and the other family.
- The Bengali date with the English date, the weekday and the lagna.
- The venue, and the time of the preetibhoj, the feast.
- A request to come with family and friends, signed binito, humbly, by the father.
Formal wording from the bride's father
This is the shape of a traditional card from the bride's side, in Bengali written in Latin letters. Families who prefer the older, formal Bengali keep the same order with grander verbs.
Om Prajapataye Namah
Mahashay/Mahashaya,
Amar kanya Kalyaniya Sreya-r shubho bibaho
Sri Amitabha Ghosh-er putra Sriman Arka-r sohit
[Bengali date], Friday, 26 February 2027, ratre
[venue], Kolkata-e onushthito hobe.
Ei shubho onushthane apni saparibare upasthit theke nabadampatike ashirbad korle badhito hobo.
Binito,
Partha Basu
What it says: Salutation to Prajapati. Dear Sir or Madam, the wedding of my daughter Sreya with Arka, son of Mr Amitabha Ghosh, will take place on the night of Friday, 26 February 2027, at the venue in Kolkata. I shall be obliged if you come with your family to this ceremony and bless the newlyweds. Humbly, Partha Basu.
Which ceremonies to list
A Bengali wedding gathers many rites around the lagna. Before the day come the ashirbad, when elders of each family bless the other's child with paddy and durba grass, and the aiburobhaat. The wedding morning begins with the dodhi mongol and the gaye holud; the evening brings the shubho drishti, the mala badal, the sampradan and the sindoor daan. Print the gaye holud, the biye and the bou bhaat, which guests attend, and let the family follow the rest.
The bou bhaat and couple-hosted cards
The bou bhaat, held at the groom's home a day or two after the wedding, is the groom's family's reception, where the bride serves rice to her new family for the first time. It gets a card of its own, in the name of the groom's parents.
Mrs Rita and Mr Amitabha Ghosh
invite you to join them
at the bou bhaat and preetibhoj
of their son Arka and daughter-in-law Sreya
Sunday, 28 February 2027, from 7.30 pm
[venue], Kolkata
With the blessings of our parents,
Sreya and Arka
invite you to our biye
Friday, 26 February 2027, Kolkata
Gaye holud in the morning; wedding and dinner from 7 pm
Bou bhaat on Sunday, 28 February
WhatsApp and the gaye holud
On the wedding morning, turmeric touched to the groom is sent to the bride's house for her gaye holud, along with the tattva, trays of gifts. Relatives who join that morning need a message of their own and an early start time.
Nomoskar! Sreya and Arka are getting married on Friday, 26 February 2027, in Kolkata.
The biye, the bou bhaat, the map and the reply are all here: [link]
Asben kintu!
What it says: Nomoskar is the greeting; the last line means: do come!
Gaye Holud
Friday, 26 February 2027, 9 am
At the Basu home, [address], Kolkata
The turmeric arrives from Arka's home in the morning; come and celebrate with us.
What it says: Gaye holud means turmeric on the body: the haldi of a Bengali wedding.
Etiquette for a Bengali invitation
The invitation is issued by the father, or by the eldest member of the family, and late parents or grandparents are remembered with a line asking for their blessings. Cards are delivered by hand to relatives and neighbours, traditionally with sweets, and the households that receive them expect a visit rather than a message.
Many guests come for the dinner and the blessing rather than the whole ceremony, which can run late. Print the lagna and the time dinner begins, so they can choose when to arrive.
- Send separate messages, or one invitation with both days, if different guests are invited to the biye and the bou bhaat.
- Give the Bengali date as well as the English one; elders look for it.
- Relatives who host an aiburobhaat, the last meal before the wedding, send their own invitations.
Questions families ask
- Why is there a butterfly on Bengali wedding cards?
- Prajapati is the god of creation invoked at weddings, and prajapati is also the Bengali word for butterfly. So the butterfly sits beside Om Prajapataye Namah as a sign of blessing.
- What is the bou bhaat?
- The reception the groom's family hosts after the wedding. The groom pledges to provide for his bride with a plate of rice and new clothes, she serves rice to his family, and relatives and friends join the feast that evening.
- Which date goes on a Bengali card?
- Both: the Bengali month and day come first on traditional cards, with the English date beside them.
