Seating guide
Escort cards vs place cards
One tells a guest which table. The other tells them which chair. Most weddings need both, and the interesting question is not what they are — it is how to stop them contradicting each other.
The difference in one line
An escort card waits at the entrance and sends a guest to a table. A place card waits on the table and sends them to a seat.
| Escort card | Place card | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it sits | A table near the entrance | At the place setting |
| What it says | Name and table | Name only |
| Sorted by | Surname, A–Z | Table, then seat |
| One per | Guest | Seat |
| You need it when | Guests have assigned tables | Guests have assigned seats |
Do you need both?
If you assign tables, you need something at the door — escort cards or a large seating chart sign. Without it, 150 people stand in the entrance reading a list over each other's shoulders.
Place cards are the second decision, and a smaller one: they only matter if you are assigning specific seats rather than just tables. Assign seats when there is a plated dinner with meal choices, when the table has people who should not be opposite each other, or when a table of ten would otherwise leave one person taking whatever chair is left. Otherwise, let the table sort itself out.
A seating chart sign replaces escort cards. It does not replace place cards.
What to write on them
- Formal: titles and surname — "Mr Baker" — unless two guests would then read the same, which at a wedding they usually would.
- Everything else: first and last name, matching how you addressed the invitation.
- Couples: one escort card between them is fine if they are seated together; place cards are always one per person, because they mark chairs.
Alphabetise escort cards by surname. It is how a guest searches for their own name in a rack of two hundred, and sorting by first name is the single most common way to make that rack unusable.
The mistake that costs an evening
This is not carelessness — it is what happens whenever the same information is typed twice. The fix is not to be more careful. It is to generate both sets from one plan, so they cannot disagree.
Print both from the same guest list
TIKTAK builds escort cards and place cards from one seating plan. Escort cards come out alphabetically by surname for the table at the door; place cards come out grouped by table in seat order, so you can carry a stack to each table and lay them down in a circle. Change the plan and both change with it.
Planning is free. The printable cards are $19 once, and nothing you type ever leaves your device.
Open the plannerQuestions people ask
Which comes first when a guest walks in?
The escort card. It is the only one they see before they know where they are going.
Can I use place cards without escort cards?
Only with a seating chart sign at the entrance. Place cards are invisible until you are already at the right table, so on their own they leave everyone stranded at the door.
What about a guest who does not come?
Remove the escort card before the doors open — a card left in the rack tells the whole room who did not turn up. The place card matters less; an empty setting reads as an empty setting.
How many do I print?
One escort card per guest, one place card per assigned seat. If you are printing on Avery 5302 tent stock, that is four cards a sheet — see the Avery 5302 measurements.
Conventions here follow standard wedding-stationery practice; where sources differ, the version that survives contact with 150 guests at a door is the one described.