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 ;)