Place Cards and Seating Cards
The terms, “place card”, “escort card” and “seating card” seem to be interchangeable these days. In this case, these styles can lend themselves to all of these scenarios. As with seating charts, I like to learn about the event so I can fully customize the card. I really believe in making things go as smoothly for a guest as possible and I do that by making cards easily legible. I really believe it is important aspect of social stationery design.
Envelope style place cards. I love these for many reasons. First, they look elegant and they display very well. Second, they adapt well to last minute seating changes. Just take the old number out of the envelope and put the new number in. It also allows place cards to be done ahead of time as opposed to waiting for the guest list to be finalized. They look well with just a name or with a design motif added.
Tent card style place cards. In this case, the number is on the inside while allowing a design motif to be on the front. Also, it is great for receptions where meal choice needs to be indicated to the servers.
TOP ROW: Single sided place cards. On the left, this style shows a city name instead of the table number. It also is displayed on a pin board. The one on the right is a tent card style which shows that all the guest information can be displayed neatly without looking overwhelming. BOTTOM ROW: On the left, this style shows how gifts can be placed underneath the place card (in this case, a children's party). On the right, this event called for a badge style place card.