7 creative ways to showcase your wedding menu

My favorite part about offbeat brides is how you all can take any mundane wedding accoutrement and turn it into something fresh and awesome. Take menus, for example. Menus are generally boring-but-necessary if you're having a sit down dinner with several meal options… but not for offbeat brides! Here are some great ways our readers have gotten creative with wedding menus…

Fancy menus

Tribe member Channamasala created full-on fancy menus herself, made from cardstock, Chinese double happiness stickers and Nepalese paper. Because she used differently colored and patterned papers, each one looked slightly different.

Circular menus

Sandee and Ty had these really cute circular menus that happen to fit perfectly in the middle of the dinner plates! They also matched their invitations and were made by Etsy seller GE Designs.

Menu lanterns

Tribe member 2dBride created these nifty menu lanterns using a tutorial that she found over here. She also used this same menu technique for the bar menu and the dessert menu as well. Plus they double as awesome decor.

Chalkboard menus

Gretchen and Becky had a large chalkboard in front of their dinner buffet to display their awesome taco menu.

Table number menus

Kristen did a pretty nifty thing. She combined her table numbers with the menu, making sure to use 100% post-consumer handmade paper at her green wedding.

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3D menus

Tribe member Amorette commissioned these 3D menus from Etsy seller Jessica's Jacket. They will sit on everyone's plate along with a pair of those red and blue 3D glasses!

Edible menus

chocolate menu1 alternative wedding ideas from Offbeat Wed (formerly Offbeat Bride) — Photo from Delysia Chocolatier.

I once attended a wedding where the menu was molded out of chocolate! To this day, I don't remember whose wedding it was, but I still remember that the menu was delicious! They're certainly not budget-friendly, but they can do double duty as your wedding favors.

If you have any other creative menu ideas, we'd love to hear 'em. And if you have any chocolate menus, I'd love to try them.

About the Author: Megan Finley Horowitz

@meggyfin @thedashanddine @meggyfin

When Megan's not writing, traveling, and sleeping, she's eating like the fate of the world depends on it. (You're welcome, world!) You can snoop into her personal life over on her website The Dash and Dine!

Comments on 7 creative ways to showcase your wedding menu

I love the look of the paper lantern menus. If we end up doing a full meal, I might have to steal them. 😀

I remember stumbling across chocolate menus on a wedding blog ages ago and swearing to myself (as I am a chocoholic) that I would do that, someday. I actually found a DIY template for doing the menus yourself, once, but I haven’t been able to find it since.

Anyone else remember seeing it somewhere online?

We had to make bilingual menus since many of our guests didn’t speak English. I made them with the motif from our invites and printed on regular white cardstock, then stuck inside napkins. People seemed to enjoy them! Here’s a pic: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nekosukidmb/5710531791/in/photostream

I was browsing around the chocolate site (Delysia) and I noticed that they also have a molded Bride and Groom cake topper. Neat! I’d have never thought to use molded chocolate as a menu or a cake topper. I wonder what other wedding-y things it could be used for? Chocolate toasting glasses maybe? Can someone please have a chocolate-themed wedding? AND INVITE ME TO IT?

…I’m craving chocolate now.

YES! This was exactly what I needed. My menu-showcasing idea ended up not working on a trial run, so I needed fresh ideas and was having trouble coming up with any. Thank you for this!