We offer custom special event menu card designs in styles ranging from vintage and colorful to simple and classic. The possibilities are endless. Menu Cards are available in CARD, TENTED or RESTAURANT styles.
Custom Menu Cards
If you are interested in a custom Menu Card design, visit our Custom Invitations page and then contact us to schedule a free invitation design consultation.
Catalog Menu Cards
If you are interested in our catalog products, visit our Carlson Craft invitations page.
DIY Menu Cards
If you have the skills to create your own designs, Visit our DIY Invitations page to view the hundreds of options available for creating the perfect DIY Menu Cards, then contact us to place your order.
Reasons to prepare a menu card
There are several good reasons to prepare a menu card for your wedding dinner:
- Menu cards can be a stunning addition to a place settingsmall_menucards
- You can create continuity by using design elements from your invitation
- By inking the name of each guest at the top, menu cards can also serve as place cards – one less piece of paper
- If you have a choices for any of the courses, menu cards will greatly speed up service (your guests will know what the options are before the server arrives.)
- Menu cards can be a memento of your wedding (make sure your photographer knows to take a picture of them)
Here are some details you will want to keep in mind:
- If you choose colors, make sure to coordinate them with the other colors at the table, in particular linens and flowers. Be especially careful with whites and off-whites.
- Talk to your caterer and florist about how the card should be displayed. Slipped inside the napin or laying on the plate? accompanied by a small floral piece?
- Menu cards must be legible. This might mean sacrificing some words to keep the font large enough, but that’s good. You don’t need to list “Potatoes and vegetables,” or even worse, “Chef’s Choice of Vegetables.” Focus on what is either exceptional or important information. Less is more. For example, “Classic Beef Wellington with Mushroom Duxelles, Sautéed Spinach, Sauce Périgourdine” can be reduced to “Beef Wellington, Sauce Périgourdine (mushroom duxelles is redundant, it’s part of the dish, and the spinach just isn’t that important. also, you may or may not choose to use accents, just be consistent.) Grilled Salmon with Zucchini, Sweet Allumette Potatoes, Micro Greens, Tomato Scallion Beurre Blanc needs only to be “Grilled Salmon, Tomato Scallion Beurre Blanc.”
- Put your names or monogram at the top (unless the menus are doubling as place cards), the date and location at the bottom.
- Wines should be listed near the bottom, with two exceptions:
- if the wines are not at all notable, there is no need to include them. “Choice of Red or White Wine” does not belong on a menu. On the other hand, if you are serving a 1989 Château la Mission-Haut-Brion Pessac-Léognan, you should list it (and invite me to your wedding.)
- if you are “coursing” the wines (a wine designated for each course) the wines should be listed underneath each course.
- A “silent” entree is just that; do not put, even in small print, “vegetarian or fish available upon request” on your menu – your caterer will kill you!
- Proof, then ask someone else to proof. Be especially careful of culinary terms (beurre blanc, entrée, raspberry) and wines. Do NOT depend on your computer’s spell checker (if you are using the microsoft word spell checker, prosciutto will be corrected, your melon will be served with prostitutes!)
Article by Richard Newton, Atelier Weddings