Help me with my place card problem..

akhensley81 · July 2010

My latest project has been place cards for the reception.

My plan was to have each guest's place card either green or yellow (my wedding colors), depending on the meal they chose on their RSVP. This will help the waitstaff at my reception venue figure out who is getting what meal. I also was planning on having a few white ones for "special diet" people - vegetarians, whatever.

I want something pretty simple. I found blank cards in the right colors at paper-source.com and they're $7.50 for a pack of 50. I'd want 2 packs of each color and 1 pack of white to make sure I have enough of each.

Then I realized that it might be a great big pain in the ass to write the name & table number on each placecard by hand... but I can't really find a print-yourself card that I like. I printed my own RD invites recently wasn't entirely thrilled with how the colors came out, even though I have a pretty good printer.

So my question is... should I fork out the $37.50 (+s/h) for the cards in my colors and just deal with hand writing them? Or keep searching for something that I can print on my own and will likely be cheaper and easier?

I'm getting tired of trying to figure this out. I'm hoping a poll will help me decide.

damaless · July 2010

Could you get plain print-out cards to print all the names on, and then decorate them with the colours you originally intended them to be? Ribbon, stickers, whatever.

ehathewa · July 2010

If you really like the colored cards but don't want to hand-write names you could try printing your guests name on address labels and then sticking those on the colored cards.

ohwhynot · July 2010

I bought the cheap print-out cards from Michaels; after some fussing with getting the alignments correct, they were very easy to do. Ditto the PP - a colored ribbon or dot sticker would achieve the same purpose.

akhensley81 · July 2010

ehathewa- that's a good idea! I'm not sure why I didn't think of that. I'd have to be very careful to center the stickers but I'll keep that in mind.

OWN & dama- I'm pretty stuck on the full-color idea. I just have this image in my mind of a wedding-detail photo of all these placecards in my colors. I can't find another idea that I like more.

frenchy730 · July 2010

Get clear labels, type out the names and table numbers, stick them on the colored cards.

FutureMrsTR · July 2010

I bought cards from the same place

Ivory and we're using two different color stamps for the entrees. I know you didn't ask, but whatever.

ANYWAY - I'm handwriting them. It can't be that bad. I think we're going to have between 85-90 guests so it won't kill me. FI is doing the stamping, though, since he's home all day.

akhensley81 · July 2010

Haha TR, I managed to delegate to FI the stamps & return address labels on our invites... and he swore to never offer to help me with anything WR again.

As a side question... assuming I go with the colored ones and write on them myself... should I get a special pen to write on them with? Or do you think regular black ink would do?

I'm usually quick at making decisions, but once I get to something I can't decide on right away... I always overthink it. Ugh.

FutureMrsTR · July 2010

I would buy a special pen. I bought a gold one, but I'm changing my mind to black so I have to exchange. Again, not that you asked, haha. I would get something like a fine tipped Sharpie or another art type pen that's quick drying to be bold/easy to read and eliminate smudging.

akhensley81 · July 2010

I love the idea of a gold paint pen... but I'm not convinced it will show up well on the yellow. And yeah, I'm terrified of smudging. If I embark on this, the last thing I need is to make it harder on myself by having a bunch of cards I screwed up. LOL! Sharpie's come in lots of colors... maybe there's a chocolateish brown that will work with both the green and yellow. Hmmmmmmm

akhensley81 · July 2010

... P.S. for a visual... the yellow is similar to the yellow on the wings of my butterfly (avatar). The green is pretty much sage.

noodle_oo · July 2010

I'm doing something similar to you because I wanted colored place cards also. I'm buying the precut colored ones from cardsandpockets and then full pages of white cardstock. I will print the names on the white card stock (just like address labels) and then cut them out and adhere them to the cards using glue dots. I *think* this will be easy, I'll let you know. I also like the layered look.

Same idea as address labels, which might be easier. We looked at paper source and they have some fun oval and frame shaped labels that they recommended for the same purpose.

If you just write them (I can't becuase they would look AWFUL, i have horrible handwriting), I'd do a silver or gold pen to dress them up a little. But black is fine too!

akhensley81 · July 2010

noodle I had not thought of that layered idea... I kind of like that too. I'd be willing to bet I could get the same exact shades of green and yellow in cardstock and make them alternating... yellow name on green card & vice versa.

Hmmm!!

frenchy730 · July 2010

clear labels!! No one listens to me.

akhensley81 · July 2010

Haha frenchy!

I'm sorry I didn't respond to your idea. If I go with the labels idea... I'll probably get white and clear and try both. I'm worried the clear labels will look weird... but I'd have to try it and see.

FutureMrsTR · July 2010

See, I think the white labels would look weird. Because it will always look like a mailing label. I like the layered look too, but no way am I trying to line up and cut out and glue down all of those pieces of paper. I'm seriously the least-crafty person EVER. I have plans to make a hoodie thing with my monogram on it and I'm fearing for my sanity.

akhensley81 · July 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_place-card-problem?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:374b2c66-8d5d-4a8e-8c64-a4fee907e1d4Post:5fdd8d6f-0c66-4169-bf81-6e12990afd22">Re: Help me with my place card problem..</a>:
[QUOTE]See, I think the white labels would look weird. <strong>Because it will always look like a mailing label.</strong> I like the layered look too, but no way am I trying to line up and cut out and glue down all of those pieces of paper. I'm seriously the least-crafty person EVER. I have plans to make a hoodie thing with my monogram on it and I'm fearing for my sanity.
Posted by FutureMrsTR[/QUOTE]

I'm worried about that too.

I'm also worried about the craftyness needed for the layered look... but my MOH.. who is a major crafty scrapbooker type.. is coming in to town a few days early and staying with me, to (in her words) "help with any last minute stuff." Maybe I'll see if she wants to take on that project.

JanoBean75 · July 2010

I would print it on regular stock and then mount it on the colored.

I'm doing round menu place cards (personalized menus that act as place cards; I'm doing a table chart rather than table cards) and mounting the ivory stock on red for lamb, brown for chicken, and gold for crab cakes. I'm going to make a little cheat sheet for the restaurant with the same stock so they know.

polichik · July 2010

Make a word document (or Photoshop, if you have it), and divide it into the number of cards that you want per page. So, if each page is 8.5"X11", if you had it as four cards per page, each card would be 4.25"x5.5". Type in each name and center it, print out a test page, then bring the thing on a zip drive to a copy store. They should be able to print it and even cut it for you.

That's how we did all of our invitations, and it came out to $97 for 80 sets of 6 different cards. So, I'd estimate $15-20 for all of what you want to do.

noodle_oo · July 2010

I'm hoping the assembly won't be too hard! We had to assemble our invitations the same way (white card on a fuchsia back card). They were precut so that helped. The glue dots are awesome! It was really easy and FI and I did it in like an hour. But we only had about 60 to do.

Good luck! I'd love to see how they turn out! I need to get my butt together and order supplies...

Knittibell · July 2010

Clear labels on the cards.

mags0607 · July 2010

Here is what I did, and maybe it will work for you.

I went to theposhevent, a seller on etsy.com, and bought one of her cute patterns. She emailed me the PDF file, and I brought a specific color paper that I bought at Micheals (5/$1.00) to Kinkos. They printed them for me, and cut them for me. I loved them, but then I decided I was lazy, and had her put the names on them for .25 each. It was well worth the extra 10.00 to have her do the names.

I don't know if this helps at all, but its an option.

LD1970 · July 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_place-card-problem?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:374b2c66-8d5d-4a8e-8c64-a4fee907e1d4Post:9e17ba95-19a6-45d9-8495-26049527da56">Re: Help me with my place card problem..</a>:
[QUOTE]ehathewa- that's a good idea! I'm not sure why I didn't think of that. I'd have to be very careful to center the stickers but I'll keep that in mind. OWN & dama- I'm pretty stuck on the full-color idea. I just have this image in my mind of a wedding-detail photo of all these placecards in my colors. I can't find another idea that I like more.
Posted by akhensley81[/QUOTE]
If you're doing this, use the clear address labels. That way you still have the "full color" effect.

Lisa8888 · July 2010

I don't understand why so many people are making place cards because all the venues I talked to provide them. I also don't understand doing these cards in different colors to indicate their meal choice. Who is to say that the guest will not throw out the place card, leave it somewhere or remove it from the table and put it in their pocket?

Why can't you just give your venue your seating choice and indicate on that their meal choice?

mags0607 · July 2010

I have never seen a venue provide the escort cards. How would they know the names and table choices of your guests?

Lisa8888 · July 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_place-card-problem?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:374b2c66-8d5d-4a8e-8c64-a4fee907e1d4Post:b33c7559-c334-4c04-84d3-9a6f4099c39c">Re: Help me with my place card problem..</a>:
[QUOTE]I have never seen a venue provide the escort cards. How would they know the names and table choices of your guests?
Posted by mags0607[/QUOTE]

When you get back your RSVPs, you provide the venue with your seating chart, guests' names and entree selection. They just print out the cards which only have the guests' names and Table number and set them up on a table. They also record for themselves the seating chart, guest name and entree selection.

Every place I talked to offerred this.

akhensley81 · July 2010

Lisa- I haven't heard of escort cards being provided by the venue either. But... even if my venue did, I would probably want to do my own anyway. The color coding idea was actually my venue's suggestion, and I don't think any my guests are so stupid not to realize that they need to put their card out.

Every wedding I've ever been to has been done this way, and it's worked out just fine.

Help me with my place card problem..

Re: Help me with my place card problem..

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