200 Guests - How did you handle seat assignments & place cards?

We are having about 200 guests with a plated dinner. In my opinion it would be pure chaos if there was no assignment, so we opted just to assign tables instead of each individual seat. Each guest will have their place card in the cocktail area and there will be something on it to designate what their meal choice is. When they get inside the reception they can choose their seat at the assigned table.

Are you saying that you can do a combo buffet and plated? If it's either-or then I'd go with assigned tables for buffet or assigned seats (and place cards with some sort of marker for meal selection)

We're having between 200 and 250 guests and will be assigning tables with place cards that also identify their meal choice. I've been researching for months and at that number, it seems like chaos to do anything pinteresty or creative.

We had 175 and did escort cards. All the cards were on a table. On the front of the card had the guest's name and in the bottom right the table number. On the back of the card, on the bottom right was a little animal with their meal choice. I also had my cousin standing there making sure people didn't just walk past the table on their way in. It worked really well.

Assigned tables, I'd do a duet entree, and do not put the place cards at the entrance to the venue.Big log jam

We are doing assigned tables with escort cards, and have chosen to do two buffet lines for around the same amount of people.

(slice my throat wedding wire)

I expected 170 (not that many showed) and I did not (gasp) have a seating chart, menu cards, or escort cards. As some would say, it was a free for all, but not a huge cluster-fuck.

I had tri tip, chicken, and two sides. Everyone got the same, and what they didn't like they didn't eat.

I knew my crowd very well though, and I think that's important.

@Lynnie - It'll either be buffet or plated, not a combo. Most likely, we'll go with traditional place cards. And I've found little ink stamps online in the shapes of different animals for meal choices. It seems with that many people, it might be chaotic to do something out of the box. We'll have a lot of out of town guests on both sides, so we'll definitely need to assign tables. But I just wondered if anyone with a similar-sized wedding had any success doing anything a little more creative. The ideas seen on Pinterest, like table assignments on window panes, etc., look really cute. But with our size wedding, we'd need like, two or three window panes, and that seems a bit ridiculous!

@Celia - Thanks for the idea of putting the place card table someplace else besides the venue's entrance. Never thought about the traffic jam!