Place Cards & Menus: Resources and Tips

Top Menu & Place Card Resources

• Caspari

• Dear Annabelle

• Dogwood Hill

• The Essential Market

• Etsy

  • It’s a rabbit hole, but there are so many fun ideas to be found, such as the wooden names trend. There are also several vendors for personalized velvet bows, similar to Mrs. Alice (below). My favorites are the pressed flower acrylic place cards found here and here.

• Fête Papier

• Flying Sheep Country

  • These place cards have a design on both sides, so they’re pretty from all angles.

• Hester & Cook

• Houses & Parties

• Light + Lilac

• Minted Weddings: Menus

• Minted Weddings: Place Cards

• Mr. P’s Place Card Company

• Mrs. Alice “Personalisable Bows”

• Pipi Printables

• Taylor Beach Design

Mary’s Tips

Menus

• Nothing beats a menu or place card written in gorgeous calligraphy. To find a calligrapher in your area, call your local stationery shop and ask for a recommendation. You can also find calligraphers on Etsy or upload the menu if you are using a website like Dogwood Hill.

• Hester & Cook’s Table Cards & Accents make exquisite menus (example here). You can add each person’s name to the top so it doubles as a place card.

• Start with a neutral paper placemat such as Hester & Cook’s Die-Cut Kraft Frame and write the menu details directly on it (either in the center or around the edges to accommodate a plate). You can also add each person’s name.

Place Cards

• Sweet treats make fantastic place cards. Examples include personalized cookies (search Instagram for custom cookies in your area), a mini tin of Louis Sherry chocolates (as seen here), or tubes of JK Chocolate Microchip Cookies. Add a ribbon and name tag for each guest.

• Seasonal produce doubles as a terrific place card holder – think apples, lemons, limes, pears, and pomegranates. Cut a small slit in the fruit to secure each place card, as seen here. Artichoke spikes naturally hold a card in place.

• Set a bud vase of pretty blooms (or even a cupcake) at each place and attach tags with people’s names. These “blooming place cards” make chic favors. Amazon is great for this – search “small bud vase” and you’ll find lots of choices. You can do something similar with terra cotta pots (example here).

• Take inspiration from the holidays:

  • Adhere place cards to seasonal party crackers and set at each place (check out Meri Meri, Caspari, or Hester & Cook for the crackers).

  • Use my candy cane trick to make a festive place card holder: tie three candy canes together with the “hook” parts facing out to create a stand. You can rest a place card in between two of the hooks, while the third props the whole thing up. See example here.

  • Celebrating New Year’s or toasting something special? Include mini splits of champagne or sparkling rosé at each place and tie a name tag onto each bottle (inspiration here).

• I love Sugar Paper’s heart notepads for Galentine’s. Put one at each place and attach a heart tag to serve as the place card.

• Get a neutral set of calligraphed place cards for your most-frequent guests. You can re-use these to add instant chic to any table. Crane’s “pearl white” place cards are great for this (they come plain, debossed, or with a beaded border).