Plated dinner with no place cards

I don’t think there’s any way around having escort cards or place cards for a plated meal.

Well the seating chart is just a mirror and paint pen, as for the place cards i think its best for guests and staff/servers alike to have the place cards

I don’t know any way around this. I have been to a wedding that had table side ordering with 200 guests but it took a long time for the meal to come out. Usually your caterer will tell you what they require.

Daughter's venue required place cards to indicate meal choices. Most venues we talked with had similar requirements.

I'm on the same boat as you! I've thought about place cards and adding little stickers indicating chicken or beef. I dont want to do place cards either :/

The only option i could think of is dual plated dinners which would up the cost - I've seen weddings where they have changed a plate color or placed something decorative as a symbol on each place - lavender branch for chicken, pink flower for beef, ect? May be silly but could be an alternative.

What don't you like about placecards?


I would agree with others that I don't think there's any way around it. However, if you didn't like the actual card itself, have you thought of using something else as a "placecard", maybe to tie into your decor? For example, if you're having a fall wedding, maybe have fabric leaves on the table with everyone's name at their respective seat and on the back could indicate chicken or beef.
My friend had a seating chart similar to what you want, but then at the table had Ferrero Rocher as the favor and place card with where we were sitting at the table. So it served as a dual purpose but wasn't the typical placecard.

We recently went to a wedding with about 300 people and they took orders at the wedding and then served us. I was shocked but you can ask your venue if they can handle that.

You should consult with your venue. Mine takes orders at the wedding but I know that's a rarity. We are having almost 300 guests and they can handle it- it's what they do.. and I've been to weddings there before to see it in action. It doesn't slow things down. That being said, if that's not your venues usual way of operating I would be worried about timing.

These are our place cards in different colors. I love them! We're also doing a plated dinner. We are using a seating chart & placing these on the tables.

Talk to your venue and see if the following is feasible: Give the coordinator a list of meals per table so they know exactly what goes to each table and have each guest confirm. Not sure if that would save time over taking orders, but its another option.

I think the aversion to place cards is kind of silly - this is exactly the reason they exist.

We went to a wedding that had a plated meal with no place cards. The RSVP included three meal options, so the caterer had the count ahead of time, and when we were seated a server just came around and asked what meal we had ordered and then brought us the correct dish (very similar to ordering food at a restaurant). That wedding had 200+ guests, and everyone got what they ordered, so I really don't think its that difficult to work around having place cards as long as you have the meal count ahead of time.

We are doing exactly what you're saying. What we have done is make our seating chart for guests to find their seats and then created a layout of the tables with names and meal options to give to our caterer.

Work it through your wedding planner