Two cards, two different jobs

Wedding stationery vocabulary trips everyone up once. The distinction is simple:

  • Escort card — picked up at the entrance, tells the guest which table to go to. Name + table number. Displayed alphabetically so a hundred guests can scan it fast.
  • Place card — already waiting at the table, marks the exact seat. Usually just the name; a meal-code icon goes here if the caterer needs it.

An escort card answers "where am I going?"; a place card answers "which seat is mine?". One lives at the door, the other lives at the plate.

Botanical place cards printed with guest names and table numbers
Cards carrying name + table number work as escort cards; the same layout without the number line is a place card.

Which combination do you need?

Escort cards only covers most weddings — guests find their table and pick any seat at it. Escort + place cards when seats are assigned individually (plated dinner, head table, strict protocol). Seating chart + place cards replaces the card wall with a board — increasingly popular because it prints as one sheet and looks striking.

Seating chart floor plan showing round tables with colour-coded guest names assigned to seats
A seating chart does the escort card's job on one board — groups colour-coded so split tables are obvious.

Printing both from one list

The practical win: both card types run off the same spreadsheet. One roster with name and table columns produces escort cards (name + number), place cards (name only), the seating chart, and even matching table numbers — four outputs, one source of truth. When the RSVP list shifts the night before, you re-print the changed pages, not a wall of stationery.

Escort card logistics

  • Alphabetical, not by table. Guests look themselves up by name — grouping cards by table number at the entrance makes everyone hunt twice.
  • Plus-ones and couples. One card per person is the formal standard; "Mr & Mrs" joint cards are acceptable and halve the print run.
  • Last-minute adds. Keep blank cards and the same template handy — a hand-lettered spare on matching card stock passes unnoticed.