In entertaining everything has its place, especially the place card.

 

 

Have you ever been to a party where the host announces dinner is served and guests are left to pick their own seats?  Chaos can occur.  First, guests uncomfortably shuffle around trying to find their place or worse, stand around idly waiting for the host to tell them where to sit.  If they do find a place, it’s usually with other guests they know, leaving other attendees feeling left out.  So, although it may seem like a minor detail, place cards play an important role in the success of any party.   

For those of you wondering what the place card is, it is simply a card (or some form of) with the guests name written on it used at each place setting on the table, indicating where the guest should sit. 

Not only do I find place cards a fun accessory for decorating the table, I use them strategically as well.  First they enhance the theme of my party and offer a great accent for my place setting.  Secondly and more importantly, they allow me to choose which guests I want to sit where to stimulate conversation. 

I try to keep several ideas in mind when deciding where my guests should sit to keep the conversations flowing.  First I try to keep couples seated at the same table, but not necessarily next to each other. I do this by alternating male and female.  But more than often, I seat guests by common interests and personality types.  For example, if I know I have a lively guest with a great sense of humor, I try to place them in the middle of the group so that more guests have access to him/her.  Or if it is family gathering and I know certain guests are not as fond of each other as the rest, I’ll try and seat them at opposite ends of the table.  Hopefully my careful planning will allow for a lively and harmonious meal. 

Place cards for more formal, large gatherings are usually the little cardboard tents you see at weddings that have guests' names on them like “Mr. Johnson” or “Mr. Michael Johnson”.  

For more casual settings, almost anything can be used as a place card as long as it has someone’s name on it.  For these less formal gatherings, I just write the guest’s first name on the place card, such as “Michael”.  If I have more than one guest with the same first name, I add the first initial of their last name to distinguish between the two. 

When possible, try to be creative and personalize your place cards to reflect the theme of your party, table setting, or event.  Often I incorporate my place cards within party favors intended for guests to take home with them after the meal.  For example, at a garden party, I used a small herb plant with a plant stake in it bearing the guests name as their place card, again, they took their plant home with them as a favor.  And during the holiday season I often use ornaments with guest’s names on them as place cards they can later take home.   

The point is, use your imagination, and with the ease of computer-generated graphics, you can even print your place cards yourself.   

Here’s one extra final idea I don’t think enough people take advantage of… using place cards on a buffet table to identify the different foods on display.  I always do this with my parties and it’s especially helpful in letting guests know what they are eating especially if someone is allergic to a type of food I’m serving. 

So if you think place cards are just a minor detail, think again.