Punjabi Sikh Wedding Invitations for the Anand Karaj
Cards, videos and animated GIFs to invite your guests to the Anand Karaj and every function around it, from the Kurmai to the Vidaai.
What is an Anand Karaj, and what does a Punjabi Sikh wedding invitation invite people to?
An Anand Karaj is the Sikh wedding ceremony, and a Punjabi Sikh wedding invitation invites your guests to that ceremony and to the run of family functions around it.
The name Anand Karaj means “blissful union.” The ceremony is performed in a Gurdwara in the presence of the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh scripture that Sikhs treat as their living Guru. The heart of it is the singing of the four Laavan, the marriage hymns, as the couple walks slowly around the Guru Granth Sahib. There is no sacred fire and no officiating priest who “marries” the couple. The scripture itself is the authority the marriage is made before, and the assembled congregation are the witnesses.
Around that religious rite sits a week or more of Punjabi celebration: the Kurmai (engagement), Chunni Chadai, Mehndi, Sangeet and Jaggo nights, the Maiya and Vatna, then the wedding morning itself with the Baraat, the Milni, the Anand Karaj, and the emotional Doli and Vidaai at the end. Many of those are cultural functions shared widely across Punjab, not religious requirements, which is worth keeping in mind when you plan and when you word the cards.
A single wedding often needs more than one kind of invitation. Couples send a save-the-date first, then the main ceremony card, then separate pieces for the Sangeet or Mehndi, and increasingly a video invitation or an animated GIF for WhatsApp and Instagram. Pikaaso makes all of those formats, so you can invite guests to the whole sequence in a style that matches your wedding, whether that is a printed card, a PDF e-card, a motion video or a short animated GIF.
Planning your Anand Karaj?
How is a Sikh wedding different from a Hindu wedding, and do you need an auspicious date for an Anand Karaj?
A Sikh wedding is the Anand Karaj, performed before the Guru Granth Sahib around the four Laavan, and it does not use an auspicious date or horoscope: any day both families find convenient is acceptable.
This is the single point most “Punjabi wedding” guides get wrong, because they treat Sikh and Hindu Punjabi practice as the same thing. They are not. “Punjabi” is a culture and a language shared across faiths, while “Sikh” is a religion, so the celebrations can look similar but the ceremony at the centre is different.
The ceremony itself. A Sikh couple is married in a Gurdwara in front of the Guru Granth Sahib. The four Laavan, hymns composed by the fourth Guru, Guru Ram Das, are sung, and the couple circles the Guru Granth Sahib once for each hymn, four times in all. A Hindu wedding, by contrast, is commonly performed around a sacred fire, Agni, which stands as witness to the vows, and the couple takes the seven steps or seven rounds of the Saptapadi. Both are complete, meaningful marriage traditions. Neither is a lesser version of the other, and many families in Punjab celebrate one or the other depending on their faith. If you are actually planning a Hindu ceremony, our Hindu wedding invitations will suit you better; this page is for the Anand Karaj.
The date. Here is the part almost no comparison page states. Sikh tradition does not choose a wedding date by horoscope, muhurat or auspicious timing. The Sikh code of conduct, the Rehat Maryada, is direct about it: in its marriage chapter it treats consulting a horoscope to decide which day is auspicious for a wedding as a sacrilege, and says any day the two families find suitable by mutual agreement should be fixed. Sikhism as a faith discourages belief in omens, lucky days and astrology, so there is simply no “auspicious date” to look up for an Anand Karaj, and no fixed time of day it must begin, though mornings are common.
If you have seen a Punjabi wedding where a pandit set a muhurat, that was a Hindu Punjabi wedding, not a Sikh one. Families do vary in how strictly they observe this, and some pick a date around long weekends, school holidays or a Gurpurab rather than any astrological rule, so if you want to be sure about scheduling at your Gurdwara, the Granthi or the Gurdwara office is the right person to confirm the day and the slot with.
For couples who want an even shorter version of this Sikh position, our Dastar Bandi (turban-tying) invitations page covers the same “no auspicious date needed” point for that ceremony.
Fixed your date the Sikh way?
What are the Punjabi Sikh pre-wedding functions?
The main pre-wedding functions, in the order most families follow, are the Kurmai, Chunni Chadai, Mehndi and Chooda ceremony, Maiya, Ganaa, Vatna and Gharoli, with the Roka, Sangeet and Jaggo commonly added along the way.
These are cultural celebrations, joyful and regionally variable, and they are separate from the religious Anand Karaj. Not every family holds all of them, the order shifts a little from home to home, and the names are spelled several ways, so treat this as the common Punjabi sequence rather than a fixed rulebook.
- Kurmai is the engagement, when the two families formally commit to the match and the groom is often given a ring or shagan. It is frequently held at a Gurdwara or at the groom’s home. Some families hold a Roka or Thaka first as an even earlier “agreement” step.
- Chunni Chadai is when the groom’s mother and family welcome the bride with a chunni (a dupatta) placed over her head, along with gifts and jewellery, marking her acceptance into the family.
- Mehndi and Chooda ceremony brings henna for the bride and, in the Chooda, the set of red and white bangles her maternal uncle and aunt give her, usually with the Kalire tied on top.
- Maiya (also written Mayian or Maiyan) is a cleansing and blessing function held separately at each home, where the bride and groom are kept in and prepared for the wedding.
- Ganaa is the tying of a sacred red thread on the wrist, on the bride and the groom at their own homes, as a protective ritual before the wedding.
- Vatna is the Punjabi turmeric ritual, the local version of Haldi, where a paste of turmeric, barley flour and mustard oil is applied to the couple for a bridal glow.
- Gharoli follows the Vatna: female relatives fetch water in a decorated earthen pot for the groom’s (and, in many families, the bride’s) ceremonial bath.
Alongside these, most families hold a Sangeet (a music and dance night) and a Jaggo, the lively late-night celebration where relatives dance through the neighbourhood with decorated pots and lamps. All of them are worth their own invitation, and each function has a natural card, video or GIF style to match its mood. The engagement in particular has its own dedicated designs on our engagement (Kurmai) invitations page.
Inviting guests to each function?
What is the order of a Sikh wedding day and the Anand Karaj ceremony?
The wedding day runs from the groom’s Baraat and the Milni greeting of the two families, into the Anand Karaj with its four Laavan sung before the Guru Granth Sahib, and closes with the Karah Prasad, the Doli, the Pag Phere and the Vidaai.
The seven steps below are the wedding-day flow. The religious core is the Anand Karaj itself; the steps before and after it are the cultural celebration around it. Details vary by family, region and Gurdwara.
- Baraat. The groom arrives with his wedding procession of family and friends, traditionally with music and dancing, to be received at the Gurdwara.
- Milni. The two families formally meet, with elders from each side greeting their counterparts, exchanging garlands and embracing. The name means “a meeting,” the coming together of the families.
- Anand Karaj. Inside the Gurdwara, before the Guru Granth Sahib, the ceremony begins with hymns and an Ardas (prayer). The bride’s father or a close relative places one end of the groom’s palla (the scarf over his shoulder) in the bride’s hand, joining the couple.
- Laavan (the four rounds). The Granthi reads the first Laav, and while the ragis sing it the couple walks slowly clockwise around the Guru Granth Sahib and bows. This repeats for all four Laavan. The four hymns, written by Guru Ram Das, trace a journey from committing to a righteous life, to love and awe of the divine, to detachment from worldly pull, and finally to a serene, blissful union. After the fourth round the marriage is complete.
- Anand Sahib and Ardas. The ceremony closes with the Anand Sahib hymn, a final Ardas, and a Vak or Hukamnama (a reading taken from the Guru Granth Sahib).
- Karah Prasad. The sacred sweet offering is shared with the whole congregation, and the couple is blessed by the sangat.
- Doli, Pag Phere and Vidaai. In the Doli and Vidaai the bride tearfully departs her parents’ home for the groom’s, tossing back a handful of rice or puffed grain over her head as a wish of prosperity for her family. A few days later the Pag Phere brings her back to visit her parents, keeping the bond with her birth family alive.
The Anand Karaj is short, often well under an hour, and has no religiously fixed start time, though many families hold it in the morning.
Ready to invite them to the ceremony?
What do a Punjabi Sikh bride and groom wear?
The groom usually wears a kurta with a turban (dastar), and the bride wears a lehenga or a richly embroidered salwar kameez, each finished with a few traditional touches like the Sehra, Kalgi, Chooda and Kalire.
The groom wears a kurta, often with a churidar or pyjama, and his turban is the centrepiece of the look. Two small rituals dress the turban and the groom on the wedding morning. In the Sehra Bandi, his family ties the turban and drapes the Sehra, a veil of flowers or beaded strings, across his face. The Kalgi is the ornamental brooch or plume pinned to the front of the turban, and Soorma (kohl) is applied to his eyes as a blessing.
The bride wears either a lehenga or an elaborately embroidered salwar kameez, in the reds, pinks and golds common to Punjabi weddings, though modern couples choose freely. Her two signature pieces are the Chooda, the set of red and white bangles traditionally given by her maternal uncle, and the Kalire, the dangling gold-toned ornaments tied to the bangles that she later taps over the heads of unmarried friends. Many Sikh brides also cover their head with a matching dupatta for the Gurdwara ceremony, as heads are covered in the presence of the Guru Granth Sahib.
None of this is fixed by religion. It is Punjabi wedding style, and families adapt it happily to taste and budget.
Matching your invitation to the look?
What should a Punjabi Sikh wedding invitation say?
Open with the Sikh invocation Ik Onkar and the Waheguru salutation, then name the couple and families, give the Gurdwara and the Laavan time (not just a generic “ceremony time”), and add the pre-wedding functions and an RSVP.
A Sikh wedding card has a recognisable shape. It usually begins with ੴ (Ik Onkar), the opening of the Guru Granth Sahib meaning “One Universal Creator,” often followed by the Sikh greeting “Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh.” Because the marriage happens during the Laavan, invitations traditionally state the Laavan time rather than a vague start time, so guests know when to be seated for the ceremony itself.
Every Gurmukhi phrase and transliteration below is a convention worth double-checking with a family elder or your Granthi before printing, since spellings and wording vary by family.
A complete card generally carries:
- the opening invocation (Ik Onkar) and the Waheguru salutation;
- the names of the bride and groom, and of their parents or hosting families;
- the Gurdwara name and full address;
- the Laavan time and the date (any mutually convenient day, as above, no muhurat line needed);
- details of the connected functions (Sangeet, Mehndi, Anand Karaj, reception) if they are on one card;
- an RSVP contact.
Sample wording (formal):
ੴ
Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh
With the blessings of Waheguru, [Parents’ names] request the pleasure of your company at the Anand Karaj of their children
[Bride] & [Groom]
Laavan at [time] on [day, date] [Gurdwara name and address] Followed by lunch (langar) and blessings
RSVP: [contact]
Sample wording (warm, modern):
ੴ
Two families, one blessing.
[Bride] and [Groom] invite you to their Anand Karaj as they take the four Laavan together before the Guru Granth Sahib.
Laavan begins at [time], [day, date], at [Gurdwara].
Please join us for the ardas, the langar and the celebrations to follow.
Kindly RSVP by [date] to [contact].
Sample line for a save-the-date or GIF:
He said haan, she said haan. [Bride] & [Groom] are getting married the Punjabi way. Anand Karaj on [date], [city]. Card to follow.
You can carry the same wording into a printed card, a PDF e-card, a video invitation or an animated GIF; only the format changes, not what a Sikh invitation needs to say.
Got your wording ready?
Punjabi Sikh wedding invitation FAQ
Is a Sikh wedding the same as a Hindu Punjabi wedding?
No. A Sikh wedding is the Anand Karaj, performed before the Guru Granth Sahib with the four Laavan sung as the couple circles it. A Hindu wedding is commonly performed around a sacred fire with the seven steps of the Saptapadi. Many Punjabi families are Sikh, but “Punjabi” is a culture and “Sikh” is a religion, so the two ceremonies are genuinely different, and both are complete traditions in their own right.
Do you need an auspicious date or muhurat for an Anand Karaj?
No. Sikh tradition does not select a wedding date by horoscope or auspicious timing. The Sikh Rehat Maryada calls consulting a horoscope to fix the wedding day a sacrilege and says any day both families find convenient may be chosen. There is also no religiously fixed time of day, though mornings are common.
What is the Anand Karaj?
The Anand Karaj, meaning “blissful union,” is the Sikh marriage ceremony. It is performed in a Gurdwara before the Guru Granth Sahib and is centred on the four Laavan, the marriage hymns, which the couple honours by walking around the Guru Granth Sahib once for each hymn.
What are the four Laavan?
The four Laavan are the marriage hymns of the Anand Karaj, composed by the fourth Guru, Guru Ram Das, and found in the Guru Granth Sahib. They are sung one at a time, and the couple walks a slow round of the Guru Granth Sahib as each is sung. The four together describe a journey from a righteous life, through divine love and detachment, to a blissful union. After the fourth round the marriage is complete.
What should a Punjabi Sikh wedding invitation say?
Open with Ik Onkar and the Waheguru salutation, name the couple and their families, give the Gurdwara venue and the Laavan time, list any connected functions such as the Sangeet or reception, and add an RSVP. Because the marriage takes place during the Laavan, state the Laavan time rather than a generic ceremony time. Check any Gurmukhi wording with a family elder before printing.
What are the main Punjabi Sikh pre-wedding functions?
The common sequence is the Kurmai (engagement), Chunni Chadai, Mehndi and Chooda ceremony, Maiya, Ganaa, Vatna and Gharoli, with a Roka, Sangeet and Jaggo often added. These are cultural celebrations, not religious requirements, and families hold whichever they like.
Where is a Sikh wedding held, and who performs it?
In a Gurdwara, before the Guru Granth Sahib. A Granthi conducts the ceremony and reads the Laavan, but no priest “marries” the couple in the way a Hindu pandit or a church minister does. The Guru Granth Sahib is the authority the marriage is made before, and the congregation are the witnesses.
Can I make a Sikh wedding invitation as a video or GIF, not just a card?
Yes. Pikaaso makes printed cards, PDF e-cards, motion video invitations, animated GIFs and save-the-dates for every function, from the Kurmai to the Anand Karaj to the reception, so you can invite guests in whatever format suits your wedding.
Still have a question about your card?
Punjabi Sikh wedding customs vary by family, region and Gurdwara, and the pre-wedding functions in particular are cultural rather than religious. Confirm ceremony scheduling with your Gurdwara and any Gurmukhi wording with a family elder or Granthi before printing.
Last reviewed:
Ready to invite your guests?