Escort Cards vs Seating Chart

I'd say do a seating chart. If there is already something at the tables with guest names on it, there is no reason to have a second item with a guest name that they then have to pickup and carry to the table

Aren’t escort cards pretty much the same as place cards? An individual card that sits in front of guest that would indicate their meal? Maybe see if you can keep your original escort card plan while giving the caterer/venue a “cheat sheet” of sorts. Example- Table 5- 6 chicken 3 beef

The thing about seating charts is people crowd around looking for their names, and then they get distracted on their way to the table and forget their table number and have to go back.

I would ask your venue about it, people often conflate place cards and escort cards, so it may be that you can just have escort cards. (It seems very odd to me that they would require you to put people in specific chairs)

Just put a meal indicator on the escort cards and assign people a table. Assigning actual seats seems like overkill.

Update: In my original email I had just mentioned making the escort cards "colored cards based on meal selection." I read through the email the venue coordinator sent back really carefully and it seems like the venue coordinator maybe thought I meant literally just a colored card without any info printed on it. I assumed she'd understand the cards would have names and table assignments, so I'm hoping that's where the confusion stemmed from. Guess that's what I get for making assumptions lol. Thanks for your help everyone!

Just use escort cards which are essentially the same as place cards. There is no reason to assign specific seats. Use solid colored card stock tent cards, which can be found ready made on Etsy, and each meal option is given a different color that you let the catering staff know which is which. For example, if your colors are red, pink and green, red would get beef, pink gets chicken and green gets vegan. There is no need for stickers or stamps that are illegible from a distance to the waitstaff.



Escort cards are easier on everyone for a number of reasons. For you, they are cheaper and easier to fix any typos or switch guests around as needed last second. For guests, they can find their name, grab and go. That eliminates impossible to read charts/posters/mirrors , traffic jams and guests forgetting their assignments on the way to the tables.

I did a seating chart and I had gold wooden names of my guests at where they will be seated. It also allowed for the venue to know who’s meal is who’s with their wooden name tag