Escort Cards vs Place Cards
Escort cards and place cards are wedding stationery items that are used to indicate seating arrangements in a wedding ceremony. While both cards help guests to get to the seats they are intended to sit during the event or ceremony, there is a difference between escort cards and place cards that many people miss and erroneously use these names interchangeably. This article attempts to highlight these differences to enable readers to use the right term when handing out these cards at a wedding ceremony.
What is Escort Card?
These are cards handed over to guests when they arrive at a reception or a wedding ceremony. These cards have the names of the guests printed over them. In general, a couple has its name as Mrs. & Mr. upon it and there is a single card for a couple. The card also guides guests to the seat they are supposed to sit with the direction given to them. These cards serve the purpose of an escort as they escort the guests to the table they are supposed to sit around.
What is Place Card?
Place cards are cards that tell the exact seat around a table at which a guest is supposed to sit. Thus, it is what it says, it indicates the place where the guest is supposed to go and sit. Place cards are formal and used where the hosts have already assigned a seat to the guests. These cards are placed on the table itself, and the guest, once he finds his name written on the card, just has to sit on the seat on which the card is placed. In a formal event, there is a table on which place cards are preset, and all a guest has to do is to look around and find the card with his or her name printed upon to find the seat on which he/she has to sit.
What is the difference between Escort Cards and Place Cards?
• A place card is preset on the table, and the guest has to move up to the table to find the seat on which he has to sit.
• Escort card is kept at a location other than the seating arrangement, and the guest has to find the table assigned for him by following the directions mentioned on the card.
• A place card is used in more formal events where there is a single table and cards with guests’ names placed on different seats.
• A place card has to be printed for each individual guest, whereas escort cards can have names of couples printed over them.
• Escort cards are kept strategically near the entrance, whereas place cards are kept on the table around which guests have to sit.