Vermilion and gold, a dragon and a phoenix facing the Double Happiness character. The card your grandparents recognise, sent as a link and able to tell you who is coming.
Nothing on a traditional Vietnamese card is decoration for its own sake. Each image stands for something the family is wishing the couple.
The dragon stands for the husband, the phoenix for the wife. Together they form the blessing long phụng hoà minh — two very different creatures keeping the same rhythm, which is what a marriage is wished to be. On a Vietnamese card the pair usually flank the Double Happiness character in the centre.
囍 is the character for joy, written twice and joined: the groom’s family’s joy and the bride’s family’s joy standing side by side. The old story has a scholar passing the imperial examination and winning his bride on the same day, so the doubled character celebrates two great things at once.
Red is the colour of happy occasions, of warmth and good fortune. White and black are avoided at a Vietnamese wedding because they are the colours of mourning. The gold edging around the lettering is a wish for abundance that lasts.
Betel leaf with areca nut — trầu cau — opens every formal conversation between two Vietnamese families, and the old legend behind it is about loyalty that outlasts death. The peony stands for prosperity. These usually sit in the border, where they signal the ceremony without crowding the page.
The colours and motifs here are read from the real templates. Tap one to open its full live demo.
Đèn Lồng · Vermilion
A great circle around your names and the 囍 character, your photo in an arch, eight chapters telling the day · Red
Đèn Lồng · Bronze Gold
A great circle around your names and the 囍 character, your photo in an arch, eight chapters telling the day · Gold
Cửa Son · Red and gold
A vermilion gate and golden clouds: the invitation letter, both families, the rites in order, a folding-screen album and a red gift envelope · Red and gold
A Vietnamese card carries information that a Western wedding template simply has no field for.
The traditional character in the centre, a gold frame and imperial-style ornament. The cover opens like an envelope, which keeps the ceremony of unfolding a paper card.
You enter the ordinary calendar date and the card works out the lunar-calendar date and prints both. Grandparents read dates by the lunar calendar, younger guests put the solar date in their phones, and nobody has to convert anything.
The card names the parents on each side in the traditional form. Where a family’s circumstances differ you can change the wording — for example "Bà quả phụ", the form used when the father has died.
Under the bride’s and groom’s names comes their rank among their siblings — trưởng nam, the eldest son; thứ nữ, a younger daughter. Vietnamese guests expect that line, and most foreign templates have no room for it.
Each event is named correctly. Lễ Vu Quy is the ceremony at the bride’s family home, Lễ Tân Hôn the one at the groom’s, and Lễ Thành Hôn is used when the two families hold a single celebration together. Reading the name tells a guest which side they are invited to.
Add a wedding track and pick a falling-petal or drifting-light effect behind the text. Formal, but not as static as a scan of a printed card.
Open the live demo of the Đèn Lồng or the Cửa Son design on a phone and see how the lettering and ornament sit.
Both families, each child’s rank among their siblings, the name of the ceremony, the date and time. The lunar date is worked out for you.
If the two families hold separate ceremonies, make a card for each and send it to that side’s guest list.
The dragon represents the groom and the phoenix the bride. Placed together they are a wish for a harmonious marriage and a peaceful household. It is the single most recognisable motif on Vietnamese invitations and wedding backdrops.
囍 is the character hỷ, joy, written twice and joined into one: the joy of the groom’s family and the joy of the bride’s family on the same day. It is pasted on doorways, printed on the backdrop, and set in the middle of the card.
The bride’s family holds Lễ Vu Quy, the ceremony where they see their daughter off to her husband’s family. The groom’s family holds Lễ Tân Hôn, where the bride is received. When both families celebrate together it is Lễ Thành Hôn. Each side should have its own card, and every next invitation in your account is a flat, lower price: Thiệp tiếp nối (the continuation invitation).
Yes. You enter the solar date and the card converts it and prints the lunar date alongside. This matters to older relatives, because auspicious days are chosen by the lunar calendar.
The wording for each side is editable, so you can use whatever your relatives actually say — "Bà quả phụ" where the father has died, or the name of the uncle who is standing in to give the couple away.
Yes, because the card is only the invitation. Many couples use the vermilion design for the ancestral ceremony at home and a minimal one for the restaurant reception. Switching template loses no data, so try both before deciding.
Build one free and see how the traditional design looks on your grandparents’ phone.
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