Sometimes a special celebration calls for place cards.
Many of our holiday and birthday meals are served buffet style, and people just fill their plates and grab a seat. But if we're having a more formal meal or a dinner party, it is fun to have place cards for each guest. People enjoy finding their name at the table, and they also have a little souvenir of the occasion. I like to scout for new ideas and change things up each time. Often, place cards become a family project!
(Of course, place cards are an "extra," so don't sweat it if you don't have time or if all of your children are young or if such things stress you out. Your guests would rather have a relaxed hostess than a pretty place card!)
If place cards are your thing, here are some ideas:
~ Last year's Thanksgiving place cards were so simple! I bought leaf-shaped gift tags at Target's Dollar Spot and tied them onto the stemware.
On the children's table, I simply laid them on their plates. Ben was impressed with his place card!
~ Another year, Kati made these delicious gingerbread cookie leaves and piped each guest's name in frosting.
~ On another Thanksgiving, we made these turkey place cards using clip art from Martha Stewart layered over colored card stock.
~ This one is not my picture, but we did make these place cards from sweet gum balls for a Thanksgiving dinner. (Bonus: a family walk in the woods the day before to gather the supplies!)
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~ For this place card, I did a google image search for a vintage Easter card, layered an oval for the name using my word processing software (nowadays, I'd probably do it with PicMonkey), and printed it on cardstock.
You could do the same thing with one of the plethora of free images at The Graphics Fairy.
There are so many ideas that I haven't tried (yet)...
~ Use paint sample strips to make place cards that coordinate with your party colors.
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~ I like this idea for any fall or winter table.
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~ These cute turkey place cards are a FREE download...
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...as are these leaf cards.
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Do you like to use place cards for special celebrations?
This is Day 17 in the series CeLeBRaTe!! Click ~here~ to see more.
We used to do this more, and I am inspired to go back to it! What fun!
ReplyDeleteDeanna
Yes, I love place cards because they answer the question immediately of where one should sit. Anymore I do them just to watch the family's collective eyes roll. They love to laugh at what they consider my "Martha Stewart" ways. I think I need a gracious way to say that they are not being gracious. Have any thoughts on that? It could be titled: How to Handle the Dolts in Your Life.
ReplyDeleteI love all of these and I love all the lovely printables that people are designing for free these days. Wonderful bloggers they are!
I love to use place cards too so I thoroughly enjoyed this post and all your creative ideas. I do think especially with more than just four or 6, it is good to assign the seats. Sometime you can even plan who would be good next to who that way. I smiled at the gum ball ones. We have more of those little guys in our yard (or we did until trees were cut down) than I'd ever care to know about ! You can twist an ankle walking on one of those. So you probably would not see us using one of those placecard motifs!
ReplyDeleteThese are all wonderful, my favorite, of course, is the gingerbread leaf cookie! ;-) I have so many questions about printing graphics onto card stock. I have an inexpensive all-in-one-printer. Can it even be attempted with it? I don't think the card stock will fit. xo
ReplyDeleteBeautiful table ideas! I'm afraid I hardly ever pre-set my table. I think it is because I don't have a separate dining room, just one table which is pretty much in constant use. Also, I'm still scarred from when my kids were younger and one ran through the house with a lighted candle while the other picked up the forks on the table, licked them and put them back:) Even though they are older now, I have a lingering fear that setting the table early is not safe around here.
ReplyDeleteCheryl, I do not use place cards. Maybe this will be the year I try it. You have many beautiful ideas that would not be too difficult to implement. Thank you. ♥
ReplyDeleteYes I love to use placemats ;) These are such lovely ideas. I am really having a hard time choosing which one I like the best.
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