A menu may be one of the smaller pieces on a reception table, and maybe even one of the lesser decisions you make when it comes to your wedding day. However, that doesn’t mean it isn’t important or contribute to the overall guest experience, because it absolutely does. The right menu can introduce texture, color, calligraphy, artwork, and personality to the place setting. It can also be the item that seamlessly ties the overall tablescape or even an entire wedding design together. When it’s thoughtfully and intentionally designed, it becomes so much more than a piece of paper listing the evening’s dinner selections. Over the years, we’ve created custom wedding menus in just about every style imaginable. Some are formal and traditional, featuring elegant calligraphy and sophisticated letterpress techniques. Others are playful and unexpected, incorporating custom artwork, unique shapes, fabric, tassels, or textures.
The main thing is that every menu is completely custom and designed specifically for the wedding it belongs to. The menu wasn’t an afterthought, friends. It’s part of the overall wedding design.
Your Menu Should Feel Like Your Wedding
When we design a menu, we aren’t starting with a blank piece of paper and simply adding a guest’s dinner choices. We’re looking at the bigger picture. We take into consideration what the invitation suite looks like, the colors of the wedding, a common material used that we can incorporate, or maybe even a motif, illustration, venue detail, or personal element that we can carry into the paper goods. This freedom and customization is what makes designing menus and wedding details so much fun.
Classic, Formal & Timeless
For a formal wedding, refined calligraphy, beautiful paper, and sophisticated printing techniques can create an incredibly elevated place setting. Details like spot calligraphy or letterpress printing add craftsmanship while keeping the overall design timeless. Elegant bows, a hand written name, carefully selected paper stock, or a thoughtful fold or edge, creates menus that stand out while carrying out a particular wedding day vision.
One of my favorite things about designing wedding menus is finding ways to introduce texture. That might mean a wavy or scalloped die-cut edge instead of a traditional clean-cut rectangle. It could be vellum layered over another piece of paper, fabric incorporated into the design, or a unique printing method that gives the finished piece dimension. We’ve also created menus embellished with tassels and other unexpected details that make guests want to pick them up and look a little closer.
Custom Artwork That Tells Your Story
Custom artwork is another way we love to make menus personal. A menu can incorporate an illustration of your venue, a meaningful landscape, a floral motif, a city skyline, or another element that has significance to you or your wedding. Oftentimes, a custom illustration or piece of artwork becomes a visual that appears throughout your wedding day on invitations, menus, signage, seating chart, or even bar details, creating that feeling that every piece belongs together.
This is ultimately what we mean when we talk about intentional wedding design. We don’t want your invitation to feel like one design, your welcome sign to feel like another, and your menus to feel like something you grabbed at the last minute. Instead, we look at the wedding as a whole. Your paper goods and day-of wedding details should be cohesive.
Maybe it’s the same calligraphy style carried from your invitation to your place cards, or a custom illustration that appears again on your menus. It could be a particular shade of blue, a unique die-cut shape, or a beautiful paper texture that shows up in several places throughout the celebration. These repeated details show your wedding was created with intention, and also completely elevates the guest experience.
Our Favorite Custom Wedding Menus
Looking back at the menus we’ve created over the years, I love how different they are from one another. They all shine in their own ways and have features that I absolutely love. These are just a few of my favorites from over the years, and each one tells a story that paired beautifully with all the other details of the day.
At White Ink Calligraphy + Co, we love creating weddings where every element tells a story and is connected to a bigger vision. When invitations, signage, menus, and other wedding details all work together, they become part of the experience your guests will remember long after the wedding day. The wedding menu is part of the overall experience, and regardless of what your wedding day vision is, we’ll create a menu that feels like an intentional part of the design.
If you’re planning a wedding in Nashville, or anywhere in the world, we’d love to help you create meaningful, personalized stationery and event details that tell your story. We work with couples worldwide to design details you and your guests will remember forever.
Reach out today to learn more about our full-service wedding and event design offerings! We can’t wait to create something unforgettable for you!
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