How to make place cards at home
You do not need a calligrapher or a craft store run. A home printer, a stack of cardstock, and a straight edge will get you a full set of place cards in an afternoon.
Pick the right cardstock
Use cardstock, not regular printer paper. Something in the range of 65 to 110 lb cover stands up as a folded tent and does not flop over.
White or ivory is safe with any table setting. Check that your printer can feed the weight you buy, since some home printers jam on the heaviest stock.
Print, score, and fold
Print your cards several to a sheet to save paper. A tent place card needs the name on both faces so it reads whether a guest approaches from either side.
Score the fold line with the back of a butter knife before folding. A scored fold is crisp, a folded-only card cracks.
Cut clean
Cut guides printed on the sheet keep your lines straight. A paper trimmer beats scissors for a clean edge, but a straight edge and a craft knife work.
Run one test sheet first. Colors and cutting vary by printer, and it is better to find that out on sheet one than on sheet fifteen.
Related reading
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.
How to make place cards in Word
Word mail merge can print a place card for every guest without retyping the list. It is the classic way, and it works. It is also fiddly in three specific places, so here is the setup and where to slow down.
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.
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.
Keep going
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.
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.
Questions
What kind of paper is best for place cards?
Cardstock in the 65 to 110 lb cover range. It holds a tent fold without drooping. Regular 20 lb printer paper is too thin to stand up.
How do I fold a tent place card?
Print the name on both halves, score the center line, then fold so the card stands like a tent with the name readable from both sides. Seatwright lays cards out this way, so the fold line and both faces are already set.
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.