The walima is a numbers problem
A nikah can be a room of forty. A walima is often three hundred, invited through parents, uncles, the mosque and three WhatsApp groups, and the caterer still needs a count. A paper card gives you no way to collect it. A message in a group gets forty "InshaAllah" replies and no numbers.
An online walima invitation fixes this. The page carries the Bismillah, who is hosting, the venue with a map, the timings and the dress code. The reply form asks each household who is coming, how many, and a meal choice for each. The answers land in one list you can hand to the caterer.
What goes on a walima invitation
- The Bismillah at the top, set properly in Arabic with its translation.
- Who is hosting. Traditionally the groom's family gives the walima; name them with their role, and the bride's family too if you prefer.
- The couple's names, on the cover.
- The date, the arrival time and the time food is served. Guests plan around dinner; say when it is.
- The venue with a map and directions, and a line about parking.
- Seating, if there is a ladies' side and a gents' side, or family seating for the top table.
- Dress code and gifts. "Formal traditional attire" and "Your presence is the gift. Kindly, no boxed gifts please." are the usual lines and come already written.
- A reply-by date, two to three weeks before the walima, which is when the caterer confirms.
- The closing dua, and the request for your guests' duas.
Our guide to walima invitation wording has the full text in several registers, from formal to warm.
Replies the caterer can use
Ask for a yes or no, how many are coming, and a meal choice per person: lamb, chicken, fish, vegetarian, or your own menu. Add a question for children's meals, high chairs or the coach from the mosque. Every answer arrives attached to the household, and you export the lot as a spreadsheet.
Two sittings or two venues
If the walima runs in two sittings, or ladies and gents eat in separate halls, say so on the schedule and ask on the reply form which sitting a household is coming to. If the nikah is a smaller, earlier gathering, give those households their own link with a note, or make a separate nikah invitation in the same account.
Designs that suit a walima
Jannah (emerald, ivory and gold, with the star lattice and the cusped arch) and Noor (a white mosque at dusk on the cover, ivory and gold inside, magazine-style) both come with the Bismillah, the verse and the dua already in place, in Arabic and in English. Either takes your colour.
What it costs
One payment of £40, VAT included, for any number of guests, live for a year. That is the launch offer; the usual price is £59. Nothing to pay until you send it. Three hundred guests cost the same as thirty.
Good questions
- Can we send the walima invitation to the whole community at once?
- Yes. Copy the open link into any group. Households who were not on your list can still reply by entering their names, and you can cap how many people each reply may include.
- Can guests say how many are coming?
- Yes. A household link lists its members and the reply form asks about each. For an open link, guests add the names of everyone coming, up to the limit you set.
- Can we ask which sitting a family wants?
- Yes. Add your own question to the reply form, such as "First sitting (6pm) or second sitting (8pm)?", and the answers come through with each reply.
- Do guests need an account?
- No. They open the link and reply from their phone. Nothing to install and nothing to sign up for.
Make yours this evening.
Preview it on your phone. Pay once when it’s right.