How to add venue maps and travel info guests actually use
What to put next to a venue so guests arrive at the right gate, including outstation travel notes that belong on the invitation.
Name the gate, not only the hall
Guests get lost inside venues that are easy to find on a map. “Convention centre” is a campus. Write the gate, the lawn name, or the banquet hall floor. If parking is at a different entrance from the baraat, say which one is for cars.
Put a map or a maps link on the invitation next to that venue, plus one sentence a person can read in a cab: “Use Gate 2 on the service road, not the mall entrance.” A pin without that sentence drops people at the loading bay.
Repeat the venue block for every function that changes address. A home mehendi and a hotel wedding need two blocks. Copying the hotel pin under the mehendi is how a decorated living room waits for an empty house.
Maṅgalya keeps maps and travel info on the same link as the wording. You can add a venue after you have already sent the WhatsApp message. Edit, save, and the existing link shows the new pin.
Write for someone who has never been to your city
Local guests know the landmark. Outstation guests know the airport. Give both: the area name neighbours use, and the landmark a driver will not argue with. “Opposite the old cinema” fails at night. A hotel name or a metro exit does not.
Add the time you want them to leave, not only the function start. Traffic before a Saturday muhurtham is not a surprise to you and is a surprise to a colleague flying in that morning. A line such as “the hall is 40 minutes from the airport without traffic” is more useful than a slogan.
If you are booking a room block, name the hotel, the last date to book, and who to message. Do not make guests hunt a PDF in an old group. The invitation is the page they will reopen from the same chat.
Multi-day or multi-venue directions are an optional add-on at ₹79. A travel kit for airport, station, and shuttle notes is ₹49. The ₹799 publish fee covers the live invitation. Turn on those add-ons only when the weekend actually needs them. Pricing lists both.
Shuttles, parking, and weather plans
If you run a shuttle, publish the pickup points and the last bus, not “shuttle available”. Guests cannot board a rumour. If the shuttle is only for the wedding morning, say it is not for the sangeet.
Parking needs a sentence when the lane is closed for the baraat or when cars must stop at a tent and walk. “Valet” without a meeting point creates a queue in front of someone else’s function.
When a lawn plan depends on rain, write the backup hall in the same venue block before the week of the wedding. Updating the link that morning is possible. Doing it before people land is kinder. The same URL means you do not print a new card.
Accessibility is one line if you have it: step-free entrance, or a drop-off closer than the car park. Elders will use that and ignore the décor photo.
What not to attach
Do not paste five competing pins from five cousins. Pick the pin you have driven yourself. If the pin is wrong, fix it on the page. A correction in chat does not replace the pin that is still on the invitation.
Avoid a separate “travel broadcast” document unless the invitation cannot hold the note. Every extra PDF is a file guests do not open on the way to the venue. The point of one link is that the cab driver and the map are the same tap.
Phone numbers for the venue manager belong on the page, with the hours they will answer. A number that goes to a decorator at midnight does not help a guest at the gate. Name the person: “Ravi at the desk”, not “call if lost”.
Photos of the entrance help when the facade is generic. A photo wall, which is for guest pictures during and after the celebration, is not a substitute for a map. The base publish includes 20 photo wall slots. Use the venue block for directions.
Check it the way a guest will
Open the invitation on a phone, on mobile data, and tap the map. If the pin needs a login or a tiny text link, move it. Guests will be in a car. They will not pinch-zoom a screenshot from a group admin.
Ask one person who does not know the venue to find the gate using only the page. Their wrong turn is the sentence you still need to write. Do this before you publish, while design is still free.
After publish, when a gate number changes, edit the block the same day. Then send one line in the groups that already have the link: the page is updated, same URL. You do not need a new invitation.
Add the venue and the one-sentence direction in the editor, publish when you are ready, and keep travel edits on that link. Guests should not have to assemble the weekend from four chats.
For a multi-city family, name the nearest airport and the station you actually want people to use. “Any cab will know it” is not a direction. If elders are coming by train, say which exit has the pickup, and who will be holding a sign if someone is meeting them. Those three facts prevent a phone call from the platform.
Read the venue block out loud once. If you run out of breath before the gate number, cut the description of the décor and leave the turn. Guests can admire the flowers after they have parked. They cannot admire them from the wrong side of the flyover.