Escort cards vs place cards
Two little cards, endlessly mixed up. They do different jobs, and knowing which is which saves you from printing the wrong thing.
What an escort card does
An escort card lives at the entrance. It carries a guest's name and their table, and nothing else. Guests pick theirs up on the way in and it walks them to the right table.
Escort cards are usually laid out alphabetically by last name so a guest can find their own in a second.
What a place card does
A place card sits at the seat itself. It marks one specific chair with one name, so a guest knows exactly where to sit once they reach the table.
Place cards are grouped by table when you set up, and often carry a meal choice underneath the name so the caterer knows who ordered what.
Do you need both?
Not always. Many weddings use escort cards to get people to a table and let them pick a chair. A formal plated dinner often uses both: an escort card to find the table, a place card to find the seat.
A small event can skip escort cards entirely and just put a place card at each seat.
Related reading
How to make escort cards
Escort cards do one job: send each guest to the right table without a bottleneck at the door. Here is how to make a whole set at home without hand-lettering a hundred names.
How to word place cards
A place card only has room for a little, so the wording matters. The goal is simple: every guest finds their name fast and no one feels slighted.
Table numbers or names
Numbering your tables is fast and foolproof. Naming them adds personality but asks a little more of your guests. Here is how to choose, and how the choice ripples through the rest of your paper.
Keep going
Escort cards
Escort cards tell each guest which table to find. Seatwright sorts your whole list A to Z and lays it out as tent cards, so the entrance table stays easy to scan.
Place cards
Place cards sit at the seat itself. Seatwright groups your guests by table and prints one card each, with the meal choice underneath the name if you added one.
Questions
Do I need both escort cards and place cards?
Only if you want to assign a specific seat, not just a table. Escort cards get guests to the right table. Add place cards when you also want to set who sits in which chair, which helps with plated meals and mixed groups.
Can a place card work as an escort card?
Not really, because a place card is sorted by table for setup, while an escort card is sorted alphabetically for guests to find. Seatwright prints both from the same list, so you do not have to choose blind.
Paste your list, see it laid out
When the plan is done, Seatwright turns your guest list into the whole day-of paper set in one pass.
Start freeFree to preview. One payment per event to print.