Wedding menu cards: what to put on them, how to word them and how to print them

What a wedding menu card is

The menu card is the card with the wedding breakfast menu that guests find at their place or in the centre of the table. It isn’t the list of packages the venue sends you to choose from (the venue or caterer prepares that): it’s the final menu, printed for the day.

The couple can make it, or whoever is planning the wedding, or the venue itself as an extra touch. Either way, the dishes come from the menu confirmed with the people cooking.

What to put on the card

From top to bottom, in reading order:

1. The couple’s names, largest of all: “Laura & James”.
2. The venue, smaller: “Ashcombe Barn”.
3. The heading and the date: “Wedding breakfast” or simply “Menu”, and “Saturday 12 June 2027”.
4. The dishes, in the order they’re served: canapés, starter, main and dessert. If there’s a sorbet between courses, include it too.
5. The wines: the white, the red and the Champagne or sparkling wine for the toast.
6. One line at the bottom: a thank-you, the evening food or a note about allergies.

There’s no need to list everything served at the drinks reception. Three or four representative canapés are enough, or a single line: “Canapés on the lawn”.

How to word the dishes

A DL card is 99 mm wide. A long name takes up three lines and the card turns into a leaflet. A few guidelines:

• The main ingredient and a hint of how it’s cooked: “Sea bass, Champagne butter sauce”, “Fillet of beef, red wine jus”.
• No “on a bed of” or “drizzled with”: “Sea bass on a bed of seasonal vegetables drizzled with a light sauce” tells guests nothing they won’t see on the plate.
• The name the kitchen uses, checked with the caterer. What guests read should match what arrives.
• Consistent capitals: the first letter of the dish and proper names (Champagne, Cornish, Rioja), nothing more.
• The wines with their appellation: “Picpoul de Pinet”, “Rioja Crianza”.

One per guest or one per table

If you want each guest’s name, the usual way is a separate place card, or writing it by hand. The menu card is the same for everyone.

Card, printing and cutting

MenuDesign prepares the menu card in two formats:

• DL card (99 × 210 mm): one card per sheet, for a printer or for printers that take that size.
• DL · three per sheet: three cards on a landscape A4. Print on A4 paper or card and cut into three.

To get it right:

• 250 to 300 gsm card, matt or textured. If it’s very thick, check your printer can take it.
• Print at actual size (“100%” or “Actual size”), never “Fit to page”.
• For DL · three per sheet, turn on the crop marks in the format settings: a dashed line shows you where to cut.
• Cut with a guillotine or a lever trimmer, never with scissors. A print shop can cut many sheets at once.
• Print a test sheet first. Many home printers leave a small white margin at the edges; check it before printing the rest.

In the US, three DL cards don’t fit across a Letter sheet, which is narrower than A4: buy A4 card or print one card per sheet. The DL size is close to the 4 × 9 in menu cards common in American stationery.

The PDF comes out at 300 dpi, the resolution a printer asks for. There’s more detail in the guides on how to print a menu and menu sizes.

Allergens for your guests

The duty to give allergen information lies with whoever cooks and serves: the venue, the restaurant or the caterer. Even so, the menu card is a good place to show them, with numbers or icons next to each dish and the key at the bottom. Ask the caterer for each dish’s allergens in writing; don’t guess them from the name.

What works best:

• Ask about allergies and intolerances on the RSVP and pass the list to the caterer with each guest’s name and table.
• One line at the bottom: “If you have an allergy or intolerance, please let our staff know”.
• For guests on an adapted menu, a card of their own at their place with their dishes. Duplicate the card and change what’s needed.

Check the usual ones at a wedding: crustaceans and molluscs in canapés and starters, sulphites in wines, Champagne and wine sauces, and gluten, eggs, milk and tree nuts in the wedding cake and petits fours.

Bilingual weddings

If some guests don’t speak English, there are two options:

• A bilingual card: the second language under each dish, in smaller type. Works well with one extra language.
• One card per language: the same card in two versions, and each guest gets theirs at their place. Cleaner, but it has to be laid out carefully.

MenuDesign can add Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese or Catalan under each dish. Have someone in the family who speaks the language check it, and keep in English any dish names that don’t translate well, with a short explanation. The guide to translating a menu works for a menu card too.

Design

The template uses the Sobremesa style: fine dining, airy, with elegant type. For a 1920s-style wedding, Déco; for a garden or country house, Botanical; for a classic ballroom, Modernista. In any of them you can change the ink, accent and paper colours to match the invitations.

Make it with MenuDesign

Open the wedding menu card template, change the names, venue, date and dishes, mark the allergens and download the PDF as a DL card or three per sheet. Free, no sign-up.