Fresh Ideas For Escort Cards at Outdoor Weddings

The escort card is an important part of a wedding reception. Without it, your guests would not know where to sit for dinner. But most of these cards are pretty boring; a white or ivory "tent" card with the name of each guest (or couple) written on it in black ink. Although you need them, you do not need to limit yourself to the standard form, especially when you are having your wedding outside. Check out these fresh ideas for escort cards to be used at outdoor weddings.

Your escort cards are a great place to do something creative. It is great if you can come up with a unique format that also fits in well with the general theme or feeling of your wedding. For instance, let's say that you are having a casual country wedding in your backyard with the bride in a linen dress and handmade wedding jewelry. Ditch the formal white tent cardstock in favor of something more relaxed and original.

A length of clothesline serves as a great place to display your seating cards. Arrange them alphabetically and use clothespins to clip each one to the clothesline. As a bonus, intersperse photos of the bride and groom or old family photos between the escort cards by pinning them to the rope between about every eighth or tenth card. Your friends will love strolling down memory lane as they look for their dinner assignment.

It is great to bring elements of your wedding setting into your displays. If you are having your reception in a field, a neat way to arrange the table cards is to "plant" them in a tabletop field of wheatgrass. You can easily grow your own patch of wheatgrass, or in a pinch, get a piece of sod from a landscaper. Trim the edge of the grass square with a thin strip of wood or bamboo. The escort cards can be lined up in tidy rows on the bed of grass. This little project takes a minimal effort, but will pay big dividends in the style department.

For a beach wedding, there are many great ways to do your seating cards. One very pretty look is to get a bunch of starfish. Tie a strip of paper to each one bearing the name of a guest and their table number. The starfish will look fantastic laid out on a table at the entrance to your reception. Another idea is to lay pretty sea green vellum escort cards over a bed of smooth seaglass in shades of blue and green. One other really cute beach escort card concept is to write the names on little paper parasols (like the kind that come in tropical drinks) and plant them into a bed of sand.

Your escort cards do not even have to be traditional notecards. If you are having an elegant style outdoor wedding, the sort where the bride wears a really graceful wedding dress and handmade jewelry, a very fresh look would be to use a gold marker to inscribe names onto a piece of fruit such as a pear. It is the epitome of the simple but elegant effect that so many brides strive for as their wedding design.

With a little creativity, you will find that there are all sorts of unusual and fantastic escort cards that will suit an outdoor wedding. You can really have fun picking something out of the ordinary. Clever escort cards are a great way to take something that you need and turn it into a really stylish addition to your wedding reception.