More Etiquette for Place Card Usage

These informal place cards were created from store bought invitations for a young girl’s “Teddy Bear Tea” birthday party. The fronts of the invitations were removed from the back and folded in half, so that each child knew where their place was at the table and the children sitting across from one another, faced a row of tumbling teddy bears. – 

“Place cards are used for seating arrangements and should never be tampered with if you want to be invited back. Hosts/Hostesses go to a lot of trouble and time to make sure the seating arrangements are proper and that everyone's tastes and feelings are accommodated. Sit where a place card has been set for you (the one with your name on it) and mingle with others you didn't sit with afterward.”– From The RSVP Institute of Etiquette’s, “Social Graces Handbook,” 1992

Writing Place Cards

At informal meals, place cards are a practical convenience only, and need follow no special set of rules. First names or nicknames can be used if all the guests are friends. But strangers, squinting anxiously to make sure of their dinner partners' names, should be given more help than "Kitty" or "Sister": "Mrs. Herrick" and "Miss Paton" would be more practical. There is no set custom concerning the handwriting or anything else.

At a semiformal meal, place cards are still a matter of common sense and convenience, rather than form. As explained in "Three Degrees of Formality," the difference between semiformal and informal entertaining is often nothing more than a technicality of service. With common sense as the guide, therefore, at a small semiformal dinner there would probably be no place cards at all; at a big dinner of friends, the place cards would be written informally as shown here; at a big elaborate dinner, they might be written according to the formal pattern described

On the Table

Place cards are laid on top of the napkin, which is folded on the place plate. If the napkin has been folded so as to stand up, the place card is put in front of the napkin, leaning against it. Or else the place card may be laid flat on the table, above each place plate. Folded place cards stand on the table, directly above the place plate. – From Vogue’s Book of Etiquette, 1948

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