Most people order forwards: they decide today, then hope. Counting backwards from the date turns it into arithmetic, and the answer is almost always “earlier than you think, but not by much”.
The arithmetic
Start at the day it must be in someone’s hands and work back to the Monday that has to carry it. The rule underneath: order by Friday and the piece is designed, proofed, printed and dispatched on the coming Monday, provided you approve the proof when it arrives.
Take a birthday on Saturday the 20th, in Pune.
| Step back | Why | Lands on |
|---|---|---|
| The day itself | It has to be in their hands | Saturday 20th |
| Three to five days of transit | Rest of India; two to three within Delhi NCR | Must leave by Monday 15th |
| The Friday cutoff for that Monday | An order placed by Friday goes out on the coming Monday | Order by Friday 12th at the latest |
| A week of margin | So one slow reply cannot sink it | Order by Friday 5th |
| Gathering photographs | The part that happens before you order | Start in the week before the 5th |
Two weeks is the safe figure. Three is comfortable when photographs have to come from other people. Ten days is tight but real.
The single largest variable is which side of Friday you order on. Miss it by one day and the order waits a whole extra week for its dispatch.
Order on a Tuesday, not a Saturday
We dispatch once a week, on Mondays, and the cutoff is the day you order. Anything placed by Friday goes out on the coming Monday; an order placed on Saturday misses it and waits for the Monday after.
A Tuesday order and a Friday order leave on the same Monday. The Tuesday one simply has three more days around it — for photographs to arrive and for the proof to be read properly rather than approved in a hurry. It is free, and it is worth more than anything else on this page.
When the date falls early in the week
This is the trap in the arithmetic, and it catches people who did everything else right.
A birthday on a Tuesday cannot be reached by the Monday of that same week: even within Delhi NCR, transit is two to three days, so a parcel leaving on Monday the 15th lands on the 17th at the earliest. It needs the Monday before, the 8th — which means ordering by Friday the 5th, eleven days ahead.
| The date falls on | Within Delhi NCR, it rides | Rest of India, it rides |
|---|---|---|
| Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday | The Monday a week earlier | The Monday a week earlier |
| Thursday | The Monday of that week | The Monday a week earlier |
| Friday | The Monday of that week | The Monday a week earlier, to be safe |
| Saturday | The Monday of that week | The Monday of that week |
Then order by the Friday before whichever Monday the table gives you.
A Sunday date is its own case. Courier practice at weekends varies by city and by carrier, so do not plan a gift to land on one — aim for the Saturday, and let it wait a day.
The deadline nobody counts
Gathering the photographs. Ordering takes four minutes; collecting sixty pictures from three phones, a group chat and an aunt in another city takes days, and the clock is running the whole time.
Start collecting before you order. If you do only one thing from this page, do that one.
When the photographs belong to other people
A gift from a group, or a book about a parent built from four siblings’ phones, adds a deadline that is not yours to control. Set it anyway, and set it early.
Give contributors a date two or three days before your order Friday, not the Friday itself. Somebody always sends theirs on the last evening, and somebody else sends a screenshot instead of the original and has to be asked again.
Name the one person collecting. Photographs arriving from five directions into five chats get lost; into one folder, they get counted.
Order when the set is closed, or tell us plainly that more are coming. The designer can only start once the photographs arrive, so a set that is still open is a set that has not started.
Tell us the date at checkout
The checkout has an optional box — When do you need it? — and it is worth filling in even when the date feels safe. Enter the occasion date alongside the delivery state, and if it sits before the earliest delivery the schedule can promise, it tells you so before you pay, with the delivery window it can actually reach.
It does not stop you ordering. It tells you to message us on WhatsApp straight afterwards so we can say honestly whether your date can be made. Better still, if you already suspect it is tight, message before ordering rather than after.
When the date is genuinely too close
We will say so rather than take the order, which is the honest version of this business. Inside about a week, almost nothing made to order arrives in time. The one narrow exception is an order placed on a Thursday or Friday, best of all for somewhere in Delhi NCR, with the photographs sent that evening and the proof approved the moment it lands — and even that is worth checking with us first.
Two things that do work:
Give a card saying what is coming. Then make it properly. A good object arriving late beats a rushed one arriving on time, and the anticipation is not a consolation prize.
Buy something off a shelf for the day itself, and give the made thing when it lands.
Dates worth ordering unusually early for
Festival weeks compress everything — couriers slow, volumes rise, and a delayed parcel has no slack behind it. Diwali, Rakhi, Valentine’s week and the December wedding season all deserve an extra week on top of the arithmetic above.
Realistic delivery timelines by zone →
And if a parcel is already moving and is not going to make the date, that is a different problem with a better answer than panic. When a gift arrives after the occasion →
Frequently asked
How far ahead should I order a personalised gift? About two weeks is safe, three if photographs have to come from other people, and ten days is tight. Under a week, only a Thursday or Friday order, ideally within Delhi NCR, has a chance — ask us first.
Does the day of the week matter? More than anything else. Dispatch is weekly on Mondays, so a Friday order catches that week’s dispatch and a weekend order waits seven days.
What is the biggest cause of missing a date? Time spent gathering photographs after ordering rather than before. The designer cannot start until they arrive, and a week lost there is a week the Monday dispatch cannot give back.
What should I do if the date is too close? Give a card explaining what is coming and let the real thing be made properly. We will tell you when a date is not achievable rather than take the order.
Do festivals affect delivery? Yes. Courier networks slow during festival weeks, so add roughly a week to the arithmetic around Diwali, Rakhi and the wedding season.
Part of our guide to ordering a personalised gift. See also: how to keep a surprise a surprise, what happens after you order and fast personalised gifts.
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