My menu cards were another DIY labor of love, and was another project that had me going back and forth to Staples many times.
I used a lot of downloaded fonts for these, which I created in word. I had to save each
sample as a PDF so Staples could print it exactly the way I saw it on my
screen. After talking to someone in the print center and dropping off
my purchased ivory cardstock, I emailed the file to my local staples for
them to print a sample. The first few samples weren't right. The
margins were way off and it wasn't perfectly centered on the page. They
suggested I print just one at a time meaning that half of each page I
print would just be garbage. Plus it would cost more because I'd be
printing twice as many sheets!
I realllly had to play
around with margins on this many, many times to get it right and
honestly, I'm not even entirely sure what I did to get it right, but it
finally worked. I have .17 margins all around and in page setup I
selected "Mirror margins" instead of Normal. That seemed to even it out
just right.
To break down the fonts:
- The top fan decoration
and the dividing line between appetizers and entrees is called
separates and can be downloaded here. This offers TONS of different ornate symbols for you to use in your printing!
- The word MENU is "Engravers MT"
- The "Appetizer, Pasta, Salad, and Entree" is in Chopin Script (Downloaded Here)
- The meal name is "Copperplate Gothic Light" and
- The description is written in regular old "Times New Roman."
So Staples printed and cut all my menus for me, which was great, but it needed a little something else. We tried a ton of different corner punches. I really wanted an ornate corner punch in these, but after each of us ruining about 5 of them, we realized we just didn't have that kind of margin of error. I guess if the cut wasn't exxxacctly a 95 degree angle, it wouldn't work. I was really disappointed in these punches. (But was able to use them for our out-of-town bag postcards)
I bought a Martha Stewart Crown Corner Punch. That one worked better, but was wayyyy too big and looked awful on these:
We finally settled on a simple Martha Stewart rounded corner punch, which I was still happy with and lots of people told us they liked how that looked.
Chris working on the corner punches
But I still felt it needed a little something. So we affixed little green gemstones to the design in the middle...
and viola, our menu cards were complete!
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| Sorry, this is a terrible picture! |
Our work station:
Our menu card in action at the wedding:
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| E.Phillips |
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| RTowers |
Unfortunately, I don't have many food pictures. As you may
recall from this post, these were our dinner menu options:
Pistachio Crusted Rack of Lamb
Served with Roasted Garlic and Rosemary Sauce
Grilled Filet Mignon
Served with Bordelaise Sauce
Roast French Breast of Chicken
Stuffed with Provolone, Ricotta, Sun-Dried Tomato,
Served on a Bed of Sautéed Spinach, and served with Madeira Sauce
Pan Seared Porterhouse Pork Chop
Served with Sweet Cherry Pepper
Parisian Potatoes and Cherry Wine
Pan Seared Atlantic Salmon
With Oyster Mushrooms, White Wine and Cream Sauce
Pan Seared Striped Bass Mariciara
With Shrimp and Kiwi Mussels
Vegetarian Special
Portabello, tricolor peppers, eggplant marinated and grilled over an open flame
Our appetizer crab cake:
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| RTowers |
Chris' beer
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| RTowers |
At our sweetheart table ready to eat our dinner:
