Wedding Place Cards Do You Need Them?

Ever wonder what the difference is between a Place Card and an Escort Card?  An Escort card tells your guests what table they are assigned to.  A Place Card has the guests name on it and is placed on the table so your guests know which seat is theirs.  This is very helpful to the servers if your invitation included menu cards with different meals offered and your guests got to choose which meal they prefer.  The Place Card can have the meal choice printed on it so the waiters don’t have to interrupt the flow of conversation to ask the guests what meal they are having.

Escort Cards  serve an important function at your reception.  Most brides  have family members or friends you know will want to sit with each other.  Even though your invitation states what time the festivities begin, people arrive at varying times, and it’s possible others will fill in the tables that would otherwise be used for those who want to sit with each other.  This is where Escort cards become a very useful tool. It helps things to be organized and convenient for your guests and should definitely be used if your wedding has 100 guests or more and if it’s a formal affair.

True, it does take a lot of planning, organizing and then re-shifting as you learn some guests won’t be attending, but it’s worth the trouble.

The Escort Table is the first thing your guests will see when they enter the reception hall or before they enter the hall, so why not  make your Escort Cards and Table “Numbers” fabulous as well as functional.

1- Figure out how many guests you are inviting and whether you will be using a table that seats 8 or 10.  Sometimes the table sizes will vary, depending on your guest list.  There are programs that are designed to help you do your seating chart, however, I simply made a large drawing of the reception room with circles representing the tables and used little post-it notes with the guests name printed on them.  This made it easy to rearrange the tables as I learned some guests weren’t coming, or Aunt Sue is no longer talking to Cousin Jill, which I didn’t know when I originally made the seating chart.

2- To help make your seating arrangement “fabulous” think outside the box for your table “numbers”.  Choose a theme that reflects both of your personalities.  Examples can be places you’ve visited together, artists you especially love, movies you love, flowers that are your favorites, names of sea shells or beaches if you’re having a beach theme wedding and either use postcards as your “table numbers” or create your theme from pictures or on the computer.  Coordinate your escort cards to match your “table numbers”.

2- Put your escort cards in alphabetical order on the table so your guests can find them easily.

3- Putting your escort cards into picture frames or place card holders serves as a favor as well and your guests can use them for a wallet size photo afterwards, a helpful tip for those on a budget.  Frames and Place Card Holders come in a wide variety of themes and styles from sophisticated to whimsical, so you’re sure to find exactly what will work with your reception decor.

4- If you’re having a DIY reception, you can purchase Table Number Holders or use any tall Place Card Holder.

Thought you’d like to see some imaginative “Table Numbers” to inspire you:

Filed under Escort Cards, General Info, Place Card Holders, Reception Basics, Table Numbers, Weddings By Color, Weddings by Seasons | Comment (1)