How to plan a wedding menu your guests will still talk about a year later
A chef-led guide to designing a wedding menu that flows, photographs beautifully, and leaves every guest fed and remembered.
A wedding menu isn't a list of dishes. It's a sequence — a story told in courses, paced to your evening, shaped around the guests sitting in front of it. Get it right and people stop checking their phones. They stay at the table. They remember the night.
◆Start with the room, not the recipe
Before our chefs propose a single dish, we ask three questions: how long is the dinner, how warm is the room, and who's at the table? A 90-minute reception under a marquee in July needs a different menu than a four-hour plated dinner in a winter ballroom. Heavy sauces wilt. Cold canapés sweat. The room writes the first draft of the menu.
◆Build in a rhythm of light and rich
The best wedding menus alternate. Bright, acidic openers wake the palate. A richer course follows. Then something cleansing — a citrus sorbet, a chilled soup. Then the main. Guests don't notice the structure, but they feel it: they don't get tired, they don't get full too early, they're still hungry when dessert lands.
- ◆Amuse: bright, salty, one bite — it sets the tone in 10 seconds.
- ◆Starter: ingredient-led, room-temperature friendly, easy to photograph.
- ◆Main: the course you'll get asked about — make it the bravest plate.
- ◆Dessert: warm + cold contrast, never just sweet.
“A wedding menu should feel like the room is breathing — light, rich, light, rich. Guests don't know why they're still at the table at midnight. We do.”
See the full Curries, Rice & Breads menu
Course by course →◆Plan for the photo, but never for the photo
Yes, food gets photographed. But a dish designed for the camera is usually a dish designed against the eater. Tall stacks fall. Foams collapse. Edible flowers wilt under hot lights. We plate for the guest first — composition, height, contrast, negative space — and the camera follows naturally.
◆Always do a real tasting
A menu reads well on paper. It tastes different in the room. We invite every couple to a private tasting in our studio kitchen — same plates, same garnishes, same service style as the wedding night. It's where menus go from good to right.
