Planning Your Wedding Menu

Wow wedding guests with the ultimate feast. Get inspired by creative menu ideas, signature cocktails, and amazing wedding cakes.

12 Questions to Ask Your Wedding Caterer
Whether your menu is gourmet or Gumbo, your caterer needs to get it right. Here’s how you can help.

Wedding Cake, Menu, and More

What to Ask Your Wedding Baker
Chocolate, carrot, buttercream, three-tiered? The choices are endless so here’s what to ask to ensure your cake is a sumptuous success.

How to Plan Your Wedding Reception Menu
From buffets to barbeques, find helpful ideas for deciding on your menu.

Rehearsal Dinner Planning Checklist

Follow our step-by-step plan for hosting a stress-free dinner before your big day.

• Book the venue. Tradition says that the groom’s family hosts the rehearsal dinner, which may or may not be true in your case. Even if the groom’s parents are taking the reins, you still need to offer options and be available to weigh in. Don’t feel constrained to go the restaurant route. A clambake on a beach or a burger fest at a bowling alley could be more fun, more you, and even more memorable.
• Negotiate the costs and the menu. If your guest list will be long, consider having cocktails and hors d’oeuvres rather than a full meal—or look into a casual, less expensive venue, like a favorite pizza parlor.
• Enlist those you’d like to have give toasts. This will give them time to come up with a speech. Generally, the father of the groom, if he’s hosting the dinner, speaks first. Then the best man or a return toast from the bride’s father, followed by anyone else who wishes to give a toast. You and your husband-to-be may want to toast each other, welcome family and friends, and thank everyone for being there. (Of course, the toasts could also be spontaneous, with anyone speaking who cares to.)

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