Place card with menu item

Etsy has solid colored card stock tent cards for each guest that will be arranged alphabetically on a table near the entrance of the reception. The guest name is on the outside with the table assignment on the inside. Each meal choice would be a different color. For example, if your colors are red, pink and green, red tent cards would be for beef, pink for chicken and green for vegan. That way, the waitstaff can see them from a distance, along with a color key given to the caterer, because stamps and stickers are impossible to see until they are at the table and have to ask each guest, which defeats the purpose.


As for the meal selections on the reply card, please be as descriptive as possible. Countless people on WW say to be as generic/vague as possible, but from a guest perspective, it really is helpful to know what exactly is being served. For example, someone may love steak but they abhor a different cut of beef or they hate the sauce and/or sides offered so they will pick chicken picatta instead if you are descriptive but they won’t eat a different flavor of chicken. You are better off not giving any choices than you are being vague and having food thrown in the trash and people say they hated it. Enough people as it is say they hate and all wedding food, even though it’s “required”, so why not let them know what exactly they are picking out to eat?

Hi Aubrey! We did a colored circle at the bottom of each place card (gold = beef, silver = chicken, black = vegetarian). Here are a few more ideas of how you can color code / indicate their meal selection:

Photo from Funky Olive Design

Photo by Jillian Mitchell Photography

Photo from Cherish Paperie

Photo from Cynthia Martin Fine Events

So we're putting the full menu for each person on their plate as their place card. They had this at my coworker's wedding that I attended last year and I thought it was so lovely. We actually just got some proofs back and I'm so excited! We gave the full name of the dish on our RSVP cards, and then the menus will have the full details.

This is the one that started my obsession:

And here's the proof for ours (we're having the names centered...)

and this is what they got for their RSVP cards. We only had 1 person ask for a vegetarian/vegan dish, and I just texted him his options when I got his RSVP back and he picked the one he wanted.

I think if you have the room and dont' mind doing it, i'd be as specific about the menu.

View Quoted Comment These are all great ideas! Thank you!

Given our fall theme, we had different colored pumpkins! The waitstaff liked that the different choices were visible from a distance. And guests liked having the full description of each item when they selected them with the RSVP.

We had planned to have color-coded escort cards (option 1 would have been teal, option 2 would have been magenta, and any guests with food allergies or dietary restrictions would have been silver), but our venue required place cards with either stickers or the meal selection written out. Double check whether your caterer requires something specific just to be safe.

View Quoted Comment I love this idea! How are you planning on doing this? Will each person have their actual seat assigned? Or are they picking this up at the table they’re assigned to and can choose which seat they want?

View Quoted Comment

So we did assigned seating. You looked at our big seating chart and found your table then when you got there, you found your seat based on the menu!

This is how they looked:

I really loved the way they turned out. And our MC made sure to let people know to have them visible for wait staff to see so they could place their meals down.

View Quoted Comment It looks so good! I love this idea