As for the menus, we bought white cardstock at Office Depot (about 200 sheets), and used of each paper for our menu. I did the printing at Kinko’s, and as you can see, the menus are in Chinese/English. The menus were actually a big hit because our guests could see what dish was coming next, and with a 10-course banquet, it really did create anticipation and excitement. The hardest part with making the menus was that my husband and I wanted it to look authentic Chinese so we bought a double happiness stone stamp from H2 Cards and my husband painstakingly stamped each of our menus - YES, all 332 of them! It was very painful because the stone stamps are not like rubber stamps. Sometimes they come out imperfectly and the Chinese ink pad is very temperamental. But they turned out beautifully. Cost = $30.00 for paper and printing costs at Kinko’s. The Chinese stone stamp cost around $16.00.

As for the name cards, I bought some perforated name cards at Office Depot and they worked for us. You can’t really tell they are perforated unless you look very carefully. With all the booze we served our guests, I doubt they noticed the perforation. The perforated name cards ones are much quicker because you can create a template on Word and just run them through your laser printer and then tear them apart. However, tearing them apart so they look nice is quite a task in and of itself. My husband, thankfully, did this part, although he did complain because it took several hours. The other option is to buy name cards that are already scored I know they have this at papersource. I had a friend who did this and you basically have to create your own template, lightly tape each one on a piece of paper and then run it through your computer. I think this option is more time consuming, although there are no perforation marks at all. Also, if you have a calligrapher and you don’t mind spending the extra money, I think the scored ones are a great option. Cost for the perforated name cards = $5.00 for 40 name cards. I needed about 320, so I spent $40.00 for name cards.

All of this sounds like a big hassle, I know, and I know that some brides don’t care for this, but I felt like my guests really appreciated the details, especially since most Chinese banquets aren’t all about the food and not about the ambiance or elegance. I guess that was part of my theme - focus on the banquet, but don’t skimp on the details so that the event is formal and high-class.