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How to Save £75 on Your Wedding Seating Plan and Make Something a Whole Lot Better Instead

By Claire

The tra­di­tional wed­ding seat­ing plan… a thing of the past?

What’s the point in a seat­ing plan any­way? It’s some­thing func­tional which really only serves to pre­vent crowds of wed­ding guests bump­ing into each other search­ing for tables, and the last unlucky few burst­ing into tears as they find their place on the table in the cor­ner, watched by every­one else.

OK, if you’re a cre­ative genius and can turn your seat­ing plan into a work of art then go for it, design your mas­ter­piece on an A1 can­vas and dis­play it with pride! If you’re scoff­ing at the notion of sav­ing a measly £75 then please feel free to buy every sin­gle item in my cal­lig­ra­phy shop. But if you’re quite sen­si­ble, a fan of cre­ative touches and quite fond of the pen­nies you have left at this stage of wed­ding plan­ning, then read on.

A relic? Or a wed­ding essen­tial? Tra­di­tional seat­ing plan by www.Calligraphy-for-Weddings.com

 The tra­di­tional wed­ding seat­ing plan is a thing of the past

Not in a ‘vin­tage’ sense either. Seat­ing plans are tak­ing a dive in pop­u­lar­ity and being replaced. Why? Four reasons -

  1. They’re a night­mare to design! Allo­cat­ing seats is one thing, but get­ting 10 tables in straight lines and all neatly arranged isn’t really fun.
  2. They’re not quirky enough. We like a bit of shabby chic these days, or some­thing a lit­tle dif­fer­ent. Most designs or kits on the high street are just dull. (If you’re deter­mined to have a seat­ing plan please choose a fab­u­lous UK sta­tionery designer to make it for you!)
  3. They’re expen­sive because they’re usu­ally dou­bled up with place cards and wed­ding favours too.
  4. When your cousin changes his girlfriend’s name with a week to go, you either have to live with the mis­take or change your entire seat­ing plan design. There’s an eas­ier option though…

Wed­ding escort cards — sim­ple, afford­able and beau­ti­ful all at the same time!

The beau­ti­ful lit­tle inven­tion we call wed­ding escort cards

Escort cards have been around in the UK for a few years but they’re still a bit of a niche thing. When we should be exclaim­ing, “Oh my god that’s genius!” we are more likely to raise a quizzi­cal eye­brow and step towards the safety of a tra­di­tional seat­ing plan.

Wrong! Step away from the seat­ing plan!

Escort cards are basi­cally place name cards, but with your table num­ber on the back. They sit in the same spot your seat­ing plan would have gone (if money was no object and all that), and guests pick theirs up, read their table name, and head off to find their places.

There’s no crowd by the seat­ing plan, the cards are oh-so-simple to use and the best thing of all is that guests can keep them. With a lit­tle cre­ative think­ing you can turn your escort cards into favours and cre­ate a gor­geous dis­play where your seat­ing plan would have gone.

Inside a folded wed­ding escort card — hand­writ­ten in cal­lig­ra­phy by www.Calligraphy-for-Weddings.com

Oh! And your cousin can call his girl­friend what­ever he likes… you can write it on her escort card as late as the day before. No stress!

How do the prices compare?

I’ll use my cal­lig­ra­phy prices for this, as they include every­thing: sta­tionery and per­son­al­i­sa­tion — every­thing arrives ready-to-use.

  • A seat­ing plan and place name cards for 100 guests will cost you from £275
  • Escort cards for 100 guests will cost you £200
  • The dif­fer­ence: £75

Top tip!

You can also turn your escort cards them­selves into favours — ask for longer cards in a book­mark style which your wed­ding guests can keep. Every­thing loves a keep­sake with their name on, and you could add paper flow­ers, rib­bons, vin­tage style charms or antique keys to suit your theme!

Your cal­lig­ra­phy dis­count offer exclu­sively on the Eng­lish Wed­ding Blog

If you order wed­ding escort cards from www.Calligraphy-for-Weddings.com I’ll give you a 10% discount!

The dis­count offer will be avail­able for the whole of July 2013. Tell me you saw the offer on the Eng­lish Wed­ding Blog and it’s yours — simples!