Wedding Menu Wording Ideas: Example Menus, Dietary Symbols and Menu Card Ideas (UK)

Your menu is one of the few pieces of wedding stationery every guest reads properly. They pick it up the moment they sit down, pass it round the table and, more often than you’d think, slip it into a handbag to keep. This guide covers wedding menu wording from top to bottom: what to put on a wedding breakfast menu, full example menus you can copy, how to show dietary requirements discreetly, and how to choose the size, shape and finishing touches for your menu cards.

What to put on a wedding menu

A good wedding menu card is short, clear and easy to read in candlelight. Most include these six things, in this order:

1. A heading. “Menu”, “The Menu”, “Dinner” or “Wedding Breakfast”. In the UK the wedding breakfast is the first meal you eat as a married couple, whatever time it’s served, so “Wedding Breakfast” is perfectly correct on a 4pm menu.
2. Course titles. Starter, Main and Dessert are the clearest. “Pudding” or “Something Sweet” are lovely, relaxed alternatives.
3. Each dish on one line, with two or three key ingredients on the line beneath.
4. Dietary symbols, kept small, with a key at the bottom.
5. Your names, and often the date or venue.
6. A closing line, such as “Teas and coffees to follow”, “Let’s eat” or “Thank you for celebrating with us”.

What to put on the back of a wedding menu? If your menu is printed on both sides, the back is a nice home for your drinks list, the timings for the rest of the day, a short thank-you note or a poem. Keep the front for the food, so nobody has to turn it over to find out what’s for dinner.

Wedding menu wording examples

Copy any of these and swap in your own dishes. Each one matches a different way of serving the wedding breakfast.

Classic three-course wedding breakfast

Choice menu (guests pre-order)

If guests chose their meals on the RSVP, list both options for each course. Guests can see what everyone else is having, and the catering team uses your place cards to match each plate to the right person.

For the choices themselves, the RSVP card does the work. Here’s simple wedding invitation menu choice wording (our invitation wording guide has full RSVP examples):

Alternate drop menu

With an alternate drop, the kitchen serves two different dishes alternately around each table, so guests don’t pre-order and can swap with their neighbour. Say so on the menu, or guests will wonder why their plate doesn’t match the one next to them.

Sharing or feasting menu

Evening food

Drinks menu

A drinks menu can sit on the back of the dinner menu, or on a sign at the bar. Naming a cocktail after each of you is a fun touch.

How to show dietary requirements on a wedding menu

The key word is discreet. Put a small symbol after the dish and a key at the foot of the menu, in smaller type than the dishes. Use the same abbreviations as your caterer so the menu matches what the waiting staff are told.

Guests with their own meal: markers on place cards

For guests who pre-ordered, or who need a special meal, the place card is what the catering team looks at. Agree a marker with your caterer and add it to each place card:

• A tiny symbol or initial in the corner, such as B for beef, F for fish or V for vegetarian.
• A coloured dot or sprig in the design, with a key you give the venue.
• The dish written small under the guest’s name, which is the clearest for staff and guests alike.

Send your caterer the final list of names and markers a week before the day. Our wildflower place cards are 100 × 45 mm, with room for a name and a small marker.

Naming your dishes

Caterers’ menus are often written for the kitchen. Trim them for the table: the dish name on one line, then two or three key ingredients. Shorter lines look better and are quicker to read.

• Ask your caterer for the final dish names in writing, and copy their spelling.
• Check the accents: crème fraîche, purée, jus, gâteau.
• Use ampersands (&) to save space on long lines.
• A personal name is a sweet touch: “Nana Jean’s Trifle” or “The Proposal Pizza” (keep the ingredients underneath).

Do you need a menu for every guest?

Not strictly. Guests love knowing what’s coming, but you have three options, and all of them work:

A named menu on every plate looks the most finished. Two per table, standing in the centre, keeps costs down and still lets everyone have a look. Our wedding stationery checklist shows how menus fit in with everything else you’ll order.

What size should a wedding menu be?

The most popular wedding menu size is tall and slim, around 100 × 210 mm (close to DL). It sits neatly on a folded napkin or on top of a dinner plate without hiding the cutlery. Here’s how the common sizes and shapes compare:

Thicker card matters more for menus than for almost anything else, because they’re handled during dinner and sometimes stood upright. Look for something around 300 gsm or more so it won’t curl or flop.

Menus that double as place cards

A menu with the guest’s name on it does two jobs at once, which saves money and keeps each place setting uncluttered. On several of our designs a small printed name tag is tied to the menu with a satin bow, so it reads as the place card the moment guests sit down. Our oval menu has a name tag cut in the shape of a lavender sprig.

Our menu and place card designs include the olive green botanical, dusty blue botanical, blush pink wildflower and dusty blue oval menus. Each guest’s name is printed on their own tag, so send us your guest list exactly as you’d like the names to appear.

Ribbon, bow and poem menus

A satin ribbon is the simplest way to make a menu feel special, and it lets you bring in your colour scheme. Our menu and place card designs come with a choice of ribbon: green or cream, blue or cream, or pink or cream, depending on the design.

For something a little different, our blue floral oval menu and poem ties an oval menu over a 5×7 floral card with a blue or cream ribbon. The card behind can carry a poem or a few words of thanks. You can use your own, or something like this one we wrote for the table:

When to order your wedding menus

Order menus once your caterer has confirmed the final dishes and your RSVPs are in, ideally at least four weeks before the wedding. That leaves time for your digital proof (usually within 7 days of receiving your details), any changes, and making. Full timings are on our delivery page.

Doing your table plan at the same time? Our guides to wedding table name ideas and seating plan ideas will help you finish the tables, and our table numbers and place cards come in matching designs.