programs and menu cards: necessary or not?

cruffino

i'm on the fence about doing programs and menu cards. i just see them as an unnecessary expense for pieces of paper that will just be tossed in the trash. but i'm open to it if there's a legitimate reason. are you doing them? why or why not?

KeptInStitches

As a guest, not necessary - especially not menu cards.

misshart00

I didn't do either. I planned to do programs, but it got down to the day before my wedding and I didn't want to deal with it.

harper0813

Programs are helpful for church weddings where there are prayers, hymns and various "motions" to go through that some guests may not be familiar with. Otherwise, they are not necessary. Same with menu cards. They can be helpful (and we had them because our starter was a chilled soup and we didn't want to surprise our guests too much), but they will not be missed.

cruffino

the large majority of guests will be familiar with the church ceremony and they'll choose dinner tableside, so i think it'll be fine if the waiter describes the options. i just have no interest in printing these things. 

Jen4948

Programs would be useful if your ceremony contains any elements that significant numbers of your guests might be unfamiliar with, such as religious elements, anything in a foreign language that needs translation, etc.  They're also useful if you want to offer a tribute to deceased or absent loved ones.  But they're not required.

Menu cards are also optional, but they can be useful in letting guests with dietary issues know the contents of foods and beverages that they may need to avoid.

southernbelle0915

cruffino said:

the large majority of guests will be familiar with the church ceremony and they'll choose dinner tableside, so i think it'll be fine if the waiter describes the options. i just have no interest in printing these things. 

If you don't want to print them, then don't. They're not necessary. I had programs (and loved them!!), but it wasn't necessary. We printed out our readings on the programs so people could follow along if they wanted to. We got a lot of nice compliments on that, but otherwise we had a bunch of leftovers.

ElcaB

If you see them as an unnecessary expense, skip them. That is, unless you have some out-of-the-ordinary stuff going on in your ceremony, in which case it'd be nice to have programs so guests can follow along (i.e., My Big Fat Greek Wedding). Programs and menu cards are completely optional. 

ashleyep

My cousin had programs for her wedding this weekend. She did a full Catholic mass, so it was definitely useful.

But if you're not having a religious ceremony, and it won't be very long or have any uncommon rituals, I wouldn't bother unless you have leftover money in your budget.

bakerie

I'm doing a full Catholic mass and many of my guests are not Catholic so I felt it was necessary. But it sounds like most of your guests will be familiar so if you don't feel like doing them, you're fine to skip it. As for menu cards, since they are choosing dinner tableside, I might provide them, just so they have a chance to read over and decide before the waiter shows up. Our guests are also deciding at the reception and if the venue didn't provide them, I definitely would have printed up some on my own. 

melbelleup

Don't need them. I'm not doing menus but will be doing programs. I LOVE programs as a guest, which is part of the reason I'm doing them. We're also having a catholic wedding ceremony, so another reason. And lastly, because I'm not paying a single cent for them.. that's the best reason

WonderRed

Not necessary.  I considered doing both on paper that matched the invitations and nixed that idea. We're going programs but I made them myself on a Word template and am printing them on nice resume paper, so it was only $8 for the paper.  We are doing a non traditional ceremony so we wanted guests to have an explanation of each thing we are including so they knew what to expect.  And we are including a full menu but it will be posted on the display board where we are putting the seating assignments not at each place setting.

allispain

Not necessary - I'm with you, OP, in considering them a waste of money. While some guests, including a couple PPs, like to save wedding programs, the vast majority (in my experience) end up in the trash. Same with menu cards - the only time I've ever found them useful was at the one wedding I attended where we got to choose from 7 entree options and did so tableside. Then it was definitely a necessity.

casey8784

I'm having a Jewish ceremony, so we're having a program that will explain all of the traditional rituals. Possibly even some translations of some of the more important Hebrew (prayers, etc)

[Deleted User]

Not necessary but we did them. We did programs because we were doing a dual language ceremony and wanted give the guests something to help them follow along.

We did menu cards because I had picked dark brown napkins at my reception to be placed on the plates. After I fallen in love with the look we went for, one of our friends who does chocolates offered to do chocolate favors for us as our wedding gift. I opted for beautiful heart shaped suckers that had a lace design on them. I thought to make sure that everyone got one that they would be placed on each plate. Problem was chocolate favor on a dark brown napkin, well the favor was going to be lost. So I found a heavy stock cream paper and made menu cards, found a cute corner punch and they turned out great. It provided a nice color contrast between the napkin and favor.

cruffino

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Definitely given me something to think about.

smalfrie19

My personal opinion, is if I was ordering table side at a wedding, I would like some description of the food.

jessyk1065

@scribe95 and @bakerie, I agree with you both! I really like programs (bookbinding/paper crafting is a hobby of mine), and we are also having a full Catholic mass with many non-Catholic guests. So we are making programs, but with the full knowledge that they are probably getting tossed in the trash immediately after the ceremony. I thought about doing menu cards but just ended up not having time/budget.

SKPM

scribe95 said:

I love programs because I like to follow along and see where we are at in the process. I also use them to see who is doing what in the ceremony, "oh wow. she's a beautiful singer. says in the program she's the groom's brother." And mine personally had a sentence or 2 about each wedidng party member; how they came into our lives and something about their character.

That would certainly be interesting to learn in the program. (Just kidding- I'm sure it's a typo, but I definitely did a double-take when reading.)

Abbyjensen

I like programs and menu cards, but I don't mind if they aren't provided. Programs I especially like if it is a long ceremony.

ohmrs2014

Definitely not necessary but our venue actually does the menu cards for us, so I'm not going to say no.  Programs I might do, but not too sure yet.

erinlin25

my venue handled the menu card, so I do find it helpful.  Either one is fine at the entrance, or do one per table if you can.

as for programs, I enjoy them, but its not "mandatory."  I spent nearly 5 hours making our programs, and I think maybe 10 people took them

mimiphin

I like them, but I don't side-eye if they aren't provided.

Iloveshanej

We are doing an outdoor, non traditional ceremony and a cake and punch reception so we decided to skip programs and menu cards aren't needed. We will introduce the wedding party as we come into the reception. 

cruffino

Now I'm starting to think I may do them! It'll come down to time and energy.

annathy03

Jen4948 said:

Programs would be useful if your ceremony contains any elements that significant numbers of your guests might be unfamiliar with, such as religious elements, anything in a foreign language that needs translation, etc.  They're also useful if you want to offer a tribute to deceased or absent loved ones.  But they're not required.

Menu cards are also optional, but they can be useful in letting guests with dietary issues know the contents of foods and beverages that they may need to avoid.

This is the only reason we're doing programs, it's one of the few places mentioning my late father is appropriate.  They're nice, but by no means necessary.

For a tableside entree choice I think they'd be nice to have, but the only venue we looked at with tableside choices was an actual restaurant and they printed up custom menus based on what was being offered to make things easier on their servers, so I'd double check with your venue to see if they handle those as part of your package.

ei34

I don't think they are.  Hubby and I didn't make up a program, and no one seemed to miss them.  The venue we hosted our wedding at actually made menu cards for us, which was nice, but I didn't hear guests raving about them or anything lol.  If they are touches you'd really like I'd say go for it!  But if not then don't bother yourself with the extra work.  Best of luck with everything!

Tomandlesley

I like programs in long ceremony's so I can follow along. I hold onto them for reference but that is it.. As far as me menus I have only ever seen them online and never at real weddings.