The Difference Of Escort Cards And Place Cards

Understandably, people can get a bit confused when it comes to the terms escort card and place card. Most tend to mistakenly, use these terms interchangeably. Burnley escoets Let's face it, newly engaged couples have a lot to learn about wedding planning in a short window of time. They'll not know the ins and outs of a wedding planner wedding blogger, or an invitation experts - after all they've gleaned knowledge from years of experience.

To help you decide which to use - escort or place cards for your big event - let me help you break down the differences. Escort cards, are what you have seen commonly used at more informal or contemporary weddings as of late. 

These are cards that typically feature a name and table number. They are usually placed at the entry area, in alphabetical order and provide guests with their seating arrangement. The difference between place card and escort card is to remember that an escort accompanies a guest from one place to another.

A place card privides the seat assignment at a designated table. They are typically found at formal or black tie affairs. Usually, there is a large seating chart that provides a table number. Often there is a person who greets guests at the event and then informs them of their table. 

Once each person locates their table, they will find their name (no number) written on a place card. In many cases these formal events use both an escort card and a place card. This seating is time-consuming with thoughtful attention given by the couple, as to where and with whom each person will be seated.

Most couples, these days, have found creative ways to interject both their personalities and thematic approaches to presenting their escort cards, not to mention their table identification. For instance, you might see couples naming a table instead of giving it a number, avoiding any intentional or unintentional numerical hierarchy in seating or table placement.

One wedding I attended that had a creative table naming, was a friend who is a writer and the groom a professor of literature. They chose to name each table with a title of an iconic classic novel. Identifying tables as Pride & Prejudice, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, or Tale of Two Cities, provided a unique way to introduce their personalities, and certainly created a conversation starter at the tables. They tucked the titles of each table into stands that were on small stacks of books. They looked lovely together with the center pieces. Bookmarks served as favors - with a thank you on one side and a quote from a famous poet on the opposite.

While doing wedding consulting, I worked with a couple that were avid travelers. We used this love of seeing the world as a thematic approach to the wedding. We created tables named after the destinations where they had traveled together. 

Included with the name, we added a photo of them in the various locations, along with a brief story about each place. Some were more exciting places then others - Machu Picchu vs Milwaukee - but both will show the guests a brief story about the various places they visited, plus learn even more about the couple.

As a means to identify meal choices on the escort cards - for caterers to understand food choices - we used landscape themed rubber stamps to accent each card. For instance, waves stamped in blue ink denoted fish, trees in green ink for chicken, and mountains in walnut brown ink for beef. The variety looked great when they were all lined up alphabetically, and made the servers job easier at the table, getting guests the correct meal.

No matter how you plan to share your personalities with your guests, I hope learning the difference between escort cards and place cards - along with some interesting examples - will help relieve some of the stress that can come with table assigning, and instead, infuse some fun into the experience.