KARACHI: “You’ll find printers of wedding invitation cards in Nazim­abad, Ancholi and Korangi, too, but most of the manufacturing takes place around Pakistan Chowk, so this is where you’ll find the most printers of such cards as well. The others buy blank cards in various shapes sizes in bulk from us,” says Shahid Ilyas of Ilyas Press, arguably the oldest printers of wedding invitation cards in the area.

“We opened in 1955 and later others also started their businesses here and now this place is known for printing of the best wedding invitation cards, so much so that we are also catering to customers from the US and the UK, to whom we courier boxes full.”

The printers also sell boxes for goodies and copies of the Holy Quran.

About the changes he has noticed in wedding invitation card trends over these years, Mr Ilyas says: “Earlier, everyone wanted the invitation written out in Urdu with one or two customers wanting English but now everyone is going for English and just one or two wanting Urdu inscriptions. Also earlier an invitation card envelope, which cost just 20paisa, was considered too expensive. “’Why spend so much on a plain envelope? Who cares about envelopes? The card inside is what matters’, is what customers used to say then. Today, they focus more on the envelope as they say it is all about presentation.

“Some parents want us to include space or a round frame for a one gram gold coin in the cards, some want the card inside a box of sweetmeats. The brides are especially choosy. Some of them want the cards to match their wedding dress, others want to match the upholstery of the VIP sofas at the front and the stage theme and design. And we say to them all, ‘customer is always right’,” smiles Osama Mansoor, a partner at SubhanAllah Wedding Cards Centre, also situated at Pakistan Chowk.

Black invitation cards were the trend until recently.

“Weddings are an occasion for celebration. How they want to celebrate and how many functions they want to include for which they need invitation cards is up to them really.”

“The most popular colours in invitation cards are off-white and red. For mehndi and mayun cards it is green, yellow and orange,” Mr Mansoor says. “But just one year ago, everyone was asking for black cards with shiny broaches and motifs. That trend is on its way out now.”

A sweetmeat box with a wedding invitation.

The usual quantity for printing for one occasion is around 250 to 300 cards, but before going into print and production the customers are sent soft copies or dummies in which they make several corrections such as spellings of names, etc. “Sometimes, the bride or groom want the spelling of their names to match with their passports. For instance, the groom may supply his wedding card while requesting leave from work abroad and his employers may not accept his excuse for going away for a few days if the spelling of his name is different. They may just take it to be a phony card shown to get extra leave,” says Mr Mansoor.

The owner of a press designing an invitation card before emailing it to a customer.

About the most expensive wedding card that he has ever produced, Mr Mansoor says it was actually a bag with a compartment inside for the wedding and other functions associated with it cards, dates, dried fruits, etc, wrapped in silver foil. Otherwise, he says, the cheapest wedding card is priced between Rs8 and Rs10 and the common one is between Rs35 and Rs50.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2014