Wedding Name Place Cards

Depending on what type of reception you have you may need to create place cards.  Cocktail wedding reception's allow your guests to mingle, whereas the formal dinner wedding receptions require some type of seating chart.  So if you choose a dinner wedding reception...you must decide 'How will our guests know where to sit!?'

We had our reception at The Columbia Station so we heard about people doing 'train tickets' as their place cards.  We wanted to do something different, none of this been there, done that.  Plus, place cards and table names are the perfect way to incorporate your theme.  Our theme was based on swimming and our colors: blue & silver.

My mom and I racked our brains thinking of everything swimming related.  After hours of searching pinterest and the Internet, it came to us.  The light bulb had gone off.  Award Ribbons!   Every swimmer that has ever swam in a race has received a 1st place award ribbon, 2nd place award ribbon, etc.  We ordered personalized ribbons from Staats Awards online.   On the back of the ribbon we filled out the guest's name with their table.  Our tables were named after swimming events.  Such as 400 Free Relay or 100 Butterfly.

When planning your place cards you have to consider:
*How easy they are to find.  You don't want the cocktail hour to go by and your guests scrambling to figure out where they are supposed to sit at dinner.
*How easy they are to read.  You don't want Aunt Penny bending over the table with her glasses for 10 minutes.
*How easy are they to hold during cocktail hour.  Picture yourself at the last wedding you went to: holding the card/present, a drink (or 2!), your purse or clutch and appetizers!

*We put the place cards in alphabetical order.
*We made sure to print everyone's names in a large size.
*The ribbon had a little string that people could slip on their finger..problem solved!

Here are some pictures of the ribbons and how we displayed them:

The fold screen is from my parents house.  We tied silver string from side to side and used miniature clothespins (spray painted silver) to pin the ribbons on. 

On the left we had signs simplifying the process even more! It's all about making sure the guests have a good time.  The quicker it is to find their place card, the faster they can get to the bar ;)

Invitations

Every wedding guest sees your invitation.  The invitation gives your guests an overall idea of your colors, how formal an event it will be, who is putting it on, etc.

        Things to include on and in your invitation:
            Who is hosting: the first names your guests see are those that are paying for the event.
             The Request: 'request the honour of your presence'
             The happy couples names
             Date and Time
             Location
             RSVP: the favor of a reply is requested by (date) **make sure you give
             yourself enough time to send out B list invitations and at least 2-3 weeksbefore
             the wedding so you can get the final list to the caterer

  *Ceremony Invitation, Reception Card, Directions and Maps, Accommodation Cards, Website

You can get your wedding invitations from a printer, website or buy a kit from a craft store.  We decided to use Minted.  They have a wide variety of designs and were high in quality.  Unfortunately when we got out invitations the print was so tiny you needed a magnifier to see it and were the wrong color! Luckily minted had wonderful customer service and re-sent the invitations in a larger font and in the correct color for free! 

     You never know until you ask. Ask for free samples, ask for a lower price, just ask..

Add a stamp for a personalized touch!

Next.. you have to work on the presentation.  Believe it or not, my parents and I assembled and re-assembled the invitations like 10x ..asking "how does this look & what will people think?"  We stamped the envelope liner in a silver "all you need is love" stamp for a personal touch.  *At the wedding we had cocktail napkins that said "all you need is love" and cut our cake to the song by The Beatles.*

Our DIY part of the invitations was addressing all the envelopes by hand using a lightbox.  

Use a Light Box to trace addresses
&
Do your Own Calligraphy

We printed all of the names and addresses from Microsoft Word in Lucida Calligraphy font.  Then used the lightbox to trace the information onto the envelopes using a thin calligraphy marker.  They took a lot of time and patience, but looked amazing! 









 Final touch was a silver heart envelope seal from Michaels.

We used the white rose for our stamps.  One thing to keep in mind is how heavy your invitations are.  Take a finished invitation to the post office to have them weight it; ensuring you will use the correct amount of postage.  You would hate to send out your invitations, just for them to be returned!  The post office has tons of designs for stamps, but don't always carry 100 at a time.  So go 2 weeks ahead just in case they have to order more for you.