Bride-to-be Blogger Alyse: My DIY Escort Cards

Alyse's DIY escort cards: drink stirrers with name tags/table assignments attached.

I’ve mentioned before that I love crafts. Despite this love, I knew that taking on too many DIY projects for the wedding would be closer to the crazy side of the crazy/cute scale. My original plans included making the escort cards, table numbers and signs for around the venue, but I recently outsourced the tables numbers and signs to the stationer who did my save-the-dates and invitations. My free time for crafts has been, let’s say, limited, and I knew she would do a great job and that it would match everything else. So that leaves the escort cards for me to DIY.

I considered several different ideas for the escort cards, but I finally decided on doing drink stirrers with little flags. I am using those calligraphy skills I acquired to write all of the guests’ names on one side, and then their table number on the other. I got the card stock online (finding the perfect shade of coral has been a constant struggle during this process), and I may or may not have acquired the drink stirrers by taking a few extra with my coffee over the past few weeks (DIY and budget-friendly).

We are naming the table numbers after all of the years that Kevin and I have known each other. We met in 1991, so that table is table 1, and so on. We aren’t quite sure whether we will be having 21 or 22 tables, so whether the last table ends up being 2011 or 2012, it works out perfectly! When this idea first formed way back in the fall, I told Kevin that we could write fun facts about us on the back that referred to the year. Kevin thought for a minute and then said, “Yeah, like the OJ trial.” (His understanding of the wedding has come so far in the recent months). In the end, we did no fun facts, just the year. The less people are reading and the more they are dancing, the better.

The drink stirrers will be placed out at cocktail hour, and then the guests can place them in their drinks—or not—and then head to their table when the reception starts. We also need to indicate the places at the table to assist the servers with the meal choices, so I am having a unique menu printed and placed at each seat. By the way, I highly recommend finding out if your cater requires this, because this was kind of a last-minute decision that thankfully my stationer can accommodate.

So this weekend, the plan is to finish up the escort cards (although I think with the way RSVPs are going, that I will be calling on my calligraphy skills the morning of the wedding) and finalize the spread heets for the caterer with the meal choices. I cannot believe that there are only 15 days left!

Did you DIY anything for your wedding? Are you glad you did, or do you wish, in the end, that you had just outsourced it?

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