Place Cards, Escort Cards and Scrolls, Oh My…

It’s one of the most daunting tasks when approaching your wedding, putting together the seating chart for your wedding reception. After you have figured out which guests will be seated at which table you need to figure out how you will communicate that information to your guests on the big day. There are Place Cards, Escort Cards, Scrolls and more. You may be wondering what all the lingo means, here are some pointers:



Place Card:
A place card indicates exactly where a guest should be seated, including which table, and which seat at the table. This card is placed at the guest’s seat. You may use a Place Card in conjunction with an…

Escort Card:
An escort card tells a guest which table he or she is to be seated at. Most often you will find one card per couple on a table during the cocktail hour.



Scroll:
Instead of giving each guest a “card” you may choose to keep all of the guest seating information in one place. This is often beautifully done on a scroll. Besides giving guests a place to check back if they loose their escort card a scroll can be a beautiful keepsake for the bridal couple. It may be more difficult to make last minute changes to seating if you chose to use a scroll, so keep that in mind when allocating your time to assign seating.



Thinking about scraping all of them, DON’T! I promise you, you will have some tables half empty, and 18 of your colleagues trying to squeeze into one so they can sit together. If you are not up for assigning each seat, take some time and at least assign each guest to a table.

Do yourself a favor and do your seating chart in Microsoft Excel. Provide your coordinator (or a trusty friend) with two copies of the list, one sorted in alphabetical order by last name and another sorted by table number. This will allow your coordinator to help guests find their table number if they can’t find their name on a card or the scroll. It will also allow the coordinator to know where open seats are quickly if the guest’s RSVP did not reach you in time to assign their table.

When it comes time to assign tables think about where the speakers are going to be set-up, which tables will be closest to service doors (and thus server chatter and some kitchen noise) and which family members and other VIPs you want seated closest to you and your bridal party. Enlist the help of both families if you are having trouble placing people, especially those you might not know as well.

Take a deep breathe, when you get to this step you are in the home stretch!

BBFN (Bridal Bliss for Now),
Olivia