Cards from the same chart
Place cards and escort cards should match the seating chart sign, because they are the same assignments in a smaller size. The $29 export includes both on one printable PDF, with crop marks, using the names and tables you already set in the maker.
Seat guests, then export the cards
An escort card answers “which table?” A place card answers “which chair?” You need the first whenever the room has more than one table, and the second when seats are assigned. If chairs are open, set out the escort cards and skip the place cards. The file still contains both, escort cards first, then place cards.
Wording stays short. On the escort card the table name is the large line and the guest name is the other. On the place card the guest name is enough. Leave the meal on the caterer spreadsheet. The card is read by the person walking in and by the person sitting next to them.
The card PDF is a US Letter sheet. Cards sit in a grid with crop marks at the corners. Those marks are the lines you cut to. A small header, outside the cards, tells the escort pages from the place-card pages.
The sheet is plain on purpose. It is not aligned to a precut label product, a perforated pack, or a stationery brand’s template. If you already bought sticker sheets, this file will not land in the stickers. Cut paper instead: writing paper, cover stock, or cotton. The PDF does not assume a brand.
Print at 100 percent. “Fit to page” moves the crop marks, and the cards no longer share an edge. Inkjet is enough for a dinner of eighty if the stock feeds. Let the ink dry before you stack the sheets.
Count the cards against the guest list before the rehearsal dinner ends. A missing card is usually someone added after the export. One changed name is easier to write by hand than to reprint the whole sheet.
Send the PDF and say “print at 100 percent, cut on the crop marks.” Name the paper weight. If the shop asks for a die line or a brand of card, the marks on the sheet are the cut lines. Ask for one proof sheet when the paper is expensive, and check one escort card against the poster: same person, same table name, same spelling. If a card edge misses the mark, the shop scaled the art. Ask for actual size.
Cards are one part of the $29 file. The poster is the sign guests read first. The sign guide covers the 24×36, 18×24, and A2 files, and the template guide is where you choose how that sign looks. Settle rounds, banquet tables, and the head table on the ideas page before this paper exists. The caterer workbook from the same payment lists the meal and the accessibility note you left off the card. The seat-finder QR, included with the export, shows a name and a table for guests who do not want to scan the poster. You can turn it off.
Build the chart for free, run the conflict check, and export when the names are the ones you want on the table. The cards cannot be more correct than the seating.
An escort card tells a guest which table to go to. A place card marks the seat at that table. This export prints both, from the same assignments: the escort card shows the table name and the guest, and the place card shows the guest.
No. The file is a plain sheet with crop marks, not a layout for a particular brand of labels or precut cards. Cut on the marks, or ask a print shop to cut on the marks.
You can export only after you pay, and the cards use the seats saved at that moment. Finish the conflict check first. Reprinting is a second trip to the printer if you move someone the night before.