Inviting guests who live abroad
Most Egyptian weddings now have a guest list in two or three countries. The people you most want there are the ones who have to book a flight to come, and they need different things from the invitation than the cousin who lives in Nasr City.
Tell them before you tell anyone else
A guest in Cairo needs a fortnight. A guest in Dubai or Berlin needs to book leave, find a flight at a price they can pay, and often plan around school terms. Three months is comfortable; six is kind. Send it to them the day the date is fixed, even if the venue is not.
احجزوا اليوم — التفاصيل هتوصلكم قريب
الفرح يوم ١٢ ديسمبر بإذن الله. المكان هنبعتهولكم لما يتحدد.
Say whose clock you mean
An invitation that says 7 PM means 7 PM where the wedding is. Everyone in Egypt reads that correctly and nobody else does. Write the city into the time and the question disappears — it costs two words and saves the message asking.
٧ مساءً بتوقيت القاهرة
7:00 PM Cairo time
Ask the ones you know cannot come
An invitation to somebody who cannot travel is not a waste. It says you counted them. Say plainly that you know it is far, and ask them to reply anyway — a message back is worth having on the day.
عارفين إنكم بعاد، بس مكانكم عندنا محجوز.
لو مقدرتوش تيجوا، ابعتولنا كلمة نقراها يوم الفرح.
Their reply matters more than anyone else’s
For a guest in Cairo, a reply is a courtesy — someone will know whether they came. For a guest abroad it is the whole plan: it decides a flight, a hotel, and how many places the caterer sets. Ask for it early and ask for it directly, rather than through the family who might forget to pass it on.
One link, three countries
This is the part a printed card cannot do. Posting to Dubai, Toronto and Berlin means collecting addresses, paying for postage and hoping it arrives; a link goes into the family group on WhatsApp and everyone has it in the same minute, wherever they are. Nobody needs an account and nobody needs to be at home to receive it.
When your guests do not all read the same language
A guest list split across countries is often split across languages too — Arabic for the family, English for colleagues or a partner’s side. Both on one invitation is normal and reads better than two separate cards, which invite the question of who got which.
Common questions
- How early should we invite family who live abroad?
- Three months is comfortable and six is generous. Flights out of the Gulf around Eid and the summer fill early and get expensive, so the further ahead you tell them, the more of them can actually come.
- Should we invite someone we are sure cannot travel?
- Yes. The invitation itself means something even if they cannot come. Say you know it is far, and ask for a message instead of an apology.
- The katb kitab is in Egypt and the celebration is abroad — how do we word that?
- Say both, each with its own city and date, on one invitation. Splitting them across two invitations is how half the guests end up thinking they were only invited to one.