menus

Menus aren't strictly necessary for cocktail hours, but they're a really nice addition, if you can have them. If you have wait staff walking around and serving the food to your guests, it saves them repeating what the food is over and over. If you're having the food on a table for guests to grab as they please, it means that they can feel confident about what they're getting - especially those with allergies or dietary requirements.

paper printing

There are two common paper sizes for menus - DL, which is long and skinny, or A5. 

You can have separate menus for drinks and food, or you can print them double sided so there's drinks on one side and food on the other.

what to include

Exactly what it says - the menu. You want to tell your guests what's on offer in terms of food and drinks.

If you have guests with dietary requirements, make sure to include any dietary information on the food menu, noting if any dishes are vegetarian, vegan or gluten free, or contain any known allergies.

It's also helpful to separate your drinks menu into alcoholic and non-alcoholic options, just to make it easier to read at a glance.

directional signage

If your cocktail hour is being held in a different location to your ceremony and/or reception space, having directional signage so that guests know exactly where to go might be helpful. In most cases a staff member or your MC will be able to guide the rest of the guests to the right place, however, so these are low on the stationery priority list.

paper printing

It really depends on your venue what size your directional signage should be. It could be anything from a freestanding sign, or an A4 or A5 sign stuck on the wall, or an A3 sign on an stand.

what to include

These should be short and sweet, with just the bare minimum directions on them, to avoid confusion.

To return to the main article about stationery design, click here.

To read about what stationery you need for your wedding reception, read the next article in this series.