One of our most frequently asked questions that we get as a Las Vegas Wedding Planner revolves around seating charts and escort cards including RSVPs, guests meals, and how all of these pieces work together so we put this together to hopefully clarify a few things!
Buffet Vs. Plated -- this is what dictates the rest of this conversation so we'll break it down for each:
Buffet: this typically means you've pre-selected a menu that guests will be able to help themselves for. We highly recommend assigning a TABLE for each guest but dictating each seat isn't absolutely neccessary unless you want to do something more personalized like notes at each seat etc.
Plated: if you choose a plated meal then you've probably selected 2-3 options for your guests. When you mail your invitations your guests need to MAKE THEIR MEAL SELECTION as part of their RSVP. Ex. Beef or Chicken.
For plated meals, you'll wanted to assign specific SEATS. There are two ways to do this:
Use a SEATING CHART to direct them to the correct table where they'll find their designated SEAT with the ESCORT CARD.
We love this option because it adds a design element to your celebration and there are so many fun ways we can be creative with your seating chart. Its a great way to infuse your personality.
You could also scrap the seating chart and do a SEPARATE TABLE in cocktail hour with all of the ESCORT CARDS lined up ALPHABETICALLY.
Either way, the escort card should typically include the following information.
The guests full name
Table number
Meal selection.
If you have a seating chart you can be a little more flexible and do something creative like the guests name on fruit or little jars of honey.... whatever you want! I do typically recommend color--coding this if possible so that you can still indicate meal selections to the catering staff (ex. maybe the jar of honey has a red ribbon for beef, white for chicken, and green for vegetarian)
The last big piece of this is the CHEAT SHEET for your planner & catering team. This document should be organized by table and have a list of the guests at each table (and in order if they're assigned seats) and their meal selection.
This allows the planner to make sure the escort cards are placed in the correct spots, that we have the correct number of people set at each table, and the catering staff to double check that they have the correct meal for each guest. <3
More questions about this?! Let us know!
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