Placecards

Soon families will gather together for Thanksgiving dinner.  This can be a large group and to prevent milling around the table and delaying the start of the meal, placecards are suggested.  They need not be purchased but can be hand crafted quickly.

This placecard is made by threading ribbon through 2 slits and tying around the napkin.  Use card stock (in patterned paper, if desired) for sturdiness.

       

         You can write your  guest's name with  

a dry erase marker on a flute

or place a coaster ring around a wine glass or simply write the name on a paper square placed under a wine glass

        Another fun place marker is using Scrabble tiles,  If the name is long, just use initials!      .

 

 

Placecards

To seat or not to seat?...that is the question.  Holiday entertaining often means a large group so when it comes to setting a formal table, is it advantageous to also set the seating?  I vote 'yes' but that could be because I enjoy whimsical place settings with placecards or my 'controlling' nature.  My sister opted not to and with 24 guests for Christmas dinner managed just fine.  There was the hesitation of where to sit at first but once settled, people selected seating and enjoyed  most congenial tablemates.  So the answer would be 'depends on the guests' or as my nephew put it 'not overthinking the situation, Aunt Susan'. 

Know your place

As I've mentioned before, place cards help a hostess by directing guests to their seats thereby directing conversation.  My plan of writing guests' names on the salad plates proved too much for my limited decorating skills.  I settled on simply an initial.  Glad that I didn't invite two guests with the same!  The medium is reduced balsamic vinegar.  It's  also used in the vinaigrette that will be passed after the salad is served.

double duty placecard/centerpiece

 

I love hydrangeas...big, cheerful blooms in white, pink, and shades of blue.  The flowers create a stunning centerpiece and you can use the leaves as placecards.  Simply write guest's name in metallic marker.

Placecard ideas

  Here are two ideas to mark your

guests' places at a Spring meal:

formal

                                                                                   

 casual

Placecards

Thomas Jefferson at his White House dinners broke with tradition and did not seat people according to rank.  Quite a novel idea at the time. He appreciated the importance of seating to encourage conversation and was also known to employ props to accomplish same.  Placecards eliminate confusion for guests and allow the hostess to arrange people for optimum interaction.  The convention of host and hostess at the head of the table still stands with female guests flanking the host and male guests attending the hostess.

Blue Dish Dinner

a place setting...once guests were seated, the blue dish was substituted with the salad plate and the starfish was removed and placed with shells in an organza bag as the favor.