Escort Cards & Place Cards

I’ve always said that the event-planning world comes with its own dictionary. Just like any industry, there are many different phrases, acronyms, and protocols you must learn to feel like you are truly “in the know”. Working in the wedding industry has required that I learn all about proper etiquette and confusing (at times) terminology! Over the course of our blog posts, we will delve in to the many different rules of etiquette, phrases, or topics that may help you out during this joyous planning time.

Today’s main topic… What is the difference between an escort card and a place card? While these two may sound similar, and I know are often mixed up when used in conversation, the two mean completely different things. Lets start with the definitions of each item.

Place Card – Anything that states a person’s name and is used to show their place at a table (easy way to remember this – place cards place you at a specific seat!)

Escort Card – Anything that states a person’s name and is used to escort them to their table (easy way to remember this – escort cards escort you to your table!)

You might ask yourself, do I have to use both of these at my wedding? Can I just pick one over the other? In all honesty, the answer is totally up to you and the experience you want to give your guests at your wedding. It is usually easiest to decide how to move forward, based on the formality of your wedding.

Escort cards are common at most events, and from a planning perspective, we highly recommend them. You can then add place cards into the mix, and once your guest is escorted to their table, they are then placed at a specific seat. But, what if you are having a smaller event, with only 1 long table, or 2-3 tables, and you don’t want escort cards? This is a circumstance that allows you to only use place cards – and we call this the exception to the rule. (The "rule" being that you usually shouldn’t have place cards without escort cards…) At a more intimate event, or even a rehearsal dinner, you may just use place cards for your guests, since there are not that many tables for them to look through to find their place card! On the other hand, if you are having a smaller gathering, but would like to have both a place card and an escort card – go for it! Take a look back at last week's blog post to see how well it worked out for Caroline and David!

Now that you have the 411 on the difference between an escort card and a place card, lets talk about the different types of cards you can use… this is where you can get as creative as you want! Just because the word "card" is in the title, doesn’t mean that a card needs to be used.