We were working on place cards for one of our brides last week when she mentioned that she found cute little stamps to show her guests’ menu selections on their place cards.
And it got me thinking about how our other customers have solved this problem.
In many cases your caterer’s waiters will not ask your guests what they ordered for dinner.
Or you may not want them to in order to have a carefree experience for your guests. Or for fear that people will forget or change their minds and throw off your count.
You can go by your seating chart, but what if someone doesn’t quite sit where they should?
As a result, including some kind of code on your place cards or escort cards has become very popular… with couples and caterers.
These are some options:
Icons
You can do these with stamps or by asking the person working on your stationery to include icons in the design.
Photo via somethingturquoise.com
Lettering
Using letters, such as “B” for beef and “C” for chicken, works well for more formal weddings.
At first Amanda, whose place cards are shown above, wanted to use icons for her design. But she liked the more formal look of using the letters, and we incorporated them into the look of the rest of her stationery. So it all blended.
Color Coded
Color coding is very popular.
One reason, it’s very easy to see. Stamps and letters can be small but if your entire card is a color, it can be really fast for waiters to understand and move on.
These map place tags were coded for beef, chicken, fish and even the kids meal. The couple used airport codes for table numbers to go with the travel theme
Spell it out
Maybe the easiest thing of all is to simply write, or have printed “beef” or “chicken” on the back of your escort cards.
Both the map place tag and folded tent design are available online in your custom colors from our Etsy handmade stationery shop.
Photos, except the stamped icon photo, are by Imbue You.
Justin and Kemba believe art and creativity can change the way we feel and see the world. And when better to share your creativity than on your wedding day or life’s special occasions? 
