Let's Talk Details: Place Cards!

The gold edged ones are beautiful!


They are essential anytime guests are sitting down to eat regardless of buffet or plated, because they provide a table assignment and act as a placeholder for jackets, purses, drinks, etc.

I like the 2nd one best! We’re not doing placement cards or assigned seatings. We’re have the sweetheart table & the tables closest to us will be reserved for bridal party & their +1 & immediate family. The outer tables are for friends.

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Aren't they gorg!!

If our budget permitted it, we would definitely have one for each guest! You make a great point though about how useful they are!

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I love the agate and the organic feel they bring to the table! We're having our layout similar to yours, except us and our bridal party will be seated at a large 'king's table' with us in the middle, but we are having assigned tables. I'm thinking of doing place cards for just us and the bridal party just for photography purposes and to add a little something special!

I love all of those, but I think the middle two are my favorites!!


We're doing just simple tan cards on mini tree stumps, and I bought a stamp with a tree on it to stamp the edge of each card (we doing an unofficial forest theme). Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of how mine will look yet because I haven't put them together yet. It'll look similar to these though! Ours will have a different tree than the one in the picture, but similar colors.

I really like a agate/stone designs, similar to your second photo. If you do it just for your bridal party, make sure you have another way for your other guests to find their seat.

We are considering doing seating cards that match our invitations since they'll likely be tossed at the end of the night. I don't want to spend the money on agate/stones if people are going to throw them out.

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That's so cute and will match your theme so well!! Love the DIY aspect of it!!

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We'll have a large table seating chart on display for our guests!

That's how we feel as well, which is why we're doing it solely for us and our wedding party. It will sort of act as another piece of their 'thank you' gift from us!

We had place cards for each individual guest. Our caterer required them, because guests pre-selected their entree choice when RSVP-ing, and we had to note their meal choices with symbols on the back of the cards. We ended up purchasing a template on Etsy, buying some fancy cardstock and special glue to add a second layer, printing them at our local Staples and glueing and assembling them ourselves. Our place cards for the sweetheart table just said "bride" and "groom" and made for some cute photos. If you're already having a seating chart, then you don't need place cards, but they're nice to have at least for you and your FH.

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That's nice that you're DIYing them!

Yes I agree. We aren't doing place cards for all of our guests since we have a table chart. This is just for us and our wedding party since we all will be sitting at the same table together! (3 farmhouse tables side-by-side)

Love the geode ones but I didn't want to spend a lot of money on nice decor items that would be tossed (other than paper products). Plus, we chose place cards that fit our pirate theme parrrghfectly! Only $0.25 each, at Fortune Red outside the pirate ride at Disneyland. Guests loved their unique fortunes. These made me giggle so much.

View Quoted Comment These are awesome!!

Definitely need them. It’s nice to just go in and know where you sit. I’m making a seating chart that will look something like this.

When we postponed from 10/10/20 to 10/30/21, I decided to add in a few white pumpkins to acknowledge the date being Halloween-Eve... but not going overboard, since we aren’t really having a Halloween themed wedding.


There will be a few mini white pumpkins placed near the guestbook and also on the bar. For place cards, we’re doing wrapped pumpkin shaped cookies with each guests’ name written in icing. They’ll also serve as one of our favors.
These are close examples:

I love the marble ones but maybe I'm just a bit biased. We planned on doing place cards as well but realized it would be way more expensive than a seating chart. So we will be doing a seating chart instead and have it by last name instead of table number so guests could find their names quicker.

Individual place cards are pretty inexpensive on Etsy. Most sell blanks (many are metallic cardstock) so you can write names yourself but some shops will do the printing/calligraphy for you. But still very economical compared to fancy tiles etc. Also, for most people, it's easier to find their name on a card, grab it and go instead of waiting for a chance to read a chart. If someone gets sidetracked with conversations, just refer to the card in hand instead going back to the chart.

I would pick whichever one is the easiest to recycle

I love the first two choices! Very pretty! We are doing lollipop favors that will double as place cards

View Quoted Comment Thank you! This was one decor detail I was sooo giggly and excited about.

I love the first ones!!! We are going to have place cards, but only because my best friend is a graphic designer and has offered to help us with all of our printing needs at no charge, it’s her gift to us. Otherwise I may have done the whole get a window and write it out thing.