Nothing about a seating chart, or escort card display, sounds fun, but trust me when I say that you can make it so beautiful and unique, it’ll nearly blow up Pinterest. Hopefully you’re well versed in the logistics of making it guest-friendly, and now you’re ready to learn how to get creative with your escort card display design.
Have Your Escort Display Show Off Your Wedding Theme
My own wedding featured a smoothie theme that tied into the history of when my husband and I were first dating. We had Jamba Juice make smoothies for our guests and various fruits graced each table. For our escort card display, Amorology teamed up with Backup Backdrops to produce a gorgeous and totally unique design with calligraphy from Four Things Paper.
A recent wedding I photographed featured a tropical theme and the bride’s biggest request for Always Flawless Productions was for a tropical coconut cocktail escort card display. They incorporated palm leaves into the display, which were additionally found in the bouquets and also a neon sign, which guests would later see again in the form of neon table numbers. By playing up your wedding’s theme in your display, you not only make your overall design more cohesive but also more exciting and fun for the guests!
Style Your Escort Card Display with an Abundance of Flowers
I mean, what Style Me Pretty reader doesn’t love an abundance of flowers!? Often, escort card displays are so devoid of life and style and simply contain one flower arrangement and names on plain cards. While there’s nothing wrong with that and it’s certainly a cost-effective design, it’s way more exciting when guests have a beautiful array of flowers to look at while finding their cards. This display was painted and calligraphed by Four Things Paper and floralized by Studio Fleurish for an lush look.
If you prefer the idea of a table instead of a vertical backdrop, create varying heights and depths with your cards and add in many floral arrangements of different sizes for the most impact.
You can even take this one step further and have a hanging display set amongst your venue’s foliage or another beautiful backdrop. For this pampas grass wedding, Epoch Design created a hanging set of three name sheets and spray painted pampas grass that matched the tones of the sheets.
Make It Out of Miniatures
If you’re like me, you obsess and gush over anything miniature. They are tiny and cute and little versions of their larger size. Incorporating miniature takeaways/favors into your escort card display will make your guests ooh and awe over your design. Think of anything miniature that you love and snatch them up online in bulk or make it yourself/commission a production if you can’t find them online. Ideas range from mini cacti/succulents to mini jars of jam or honey to mini animals for pet lovers to mini iconic buildings and landmarks for couples who love to travel.
This couple paired the escort cards with miniature modern chairs for their Palm Springs wedding. To be honest, I would have made my rounds at the end of the night to scoop up any left behind chairs. They’re literally too cute and unique to leave behind!
What could be more perfect than a Russian nesting doll that is literally filled with miniature versions of itself? This insanely unique display by Amorology featured nesting dolls as escort cards painted in various wedding colors.
Make Your Escort Card Display Interactive
Whether your escort card display is as minimally interactive as opening up a little envelope that reveals their seat or as much as checking in with a flight attendant, they’ll love feeling more involved in the wedding. Have your guests crack a code to find their seat or embark on a mini scavenger hunt ending at their table, or interact with characters at a mini themed set for a truly creative experience.
I can’t mention that flight attendant idea without showing it! Gianna SanFilippo teamed up with Backup Backdrops to create this incredible concept of guests checking in to get boarding passes to their table.
Cavin Elizabeth is a wedding film photographer based in San Diego, California. Her wedding work has taken her all over the United States and abroad. In addition to being a photographer, Cavin is an educator and an avid blogger of wedding planning tips for brides and grooms. She authored the book A Bride’s Guide to a Picture Perfect Wedding, which teaches couples how to make wedding plans that are best for photography.
