Table Setting

As part of Diffa's Student Design Initiative, five of New York's top design schools created installations for the showcase, under the direction of industry mentors and within a strict budget. Students from the Pratt Institute, working with mentor Arpad Baksa, used Pegboard, twinkle lights, and individually placed test tubes to create a sparkling rendering of a world map.

For the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center’s gala, held in Miami in December, Shiraz Events designed miniature terrariums in fishbowls, that were placed on highboy tables during cocktail hour.

For New York Design Center's table at Diffa’s Dining by Design in New York in 2011, Coffinier Ku Design folded red napkins into flower shapes and topped each one with a flower- and water-filled glass bowl.

Pressed Cotton sells gray-washed wooden chalkboard boxes, from $19 each, that can be filled with plants or flowers and used as centerpieces. Have the boxes do double duty by using chalk to write table numbers on the side.

Also available through Pressed Cotton are chalkboard tags, $3.50 each, which can be used as signage or place cards or can be hung from the neck of wine bottles to designate tables.

Centerpieces of white carnations designed by Feats Inc. evoked fluffy snowballs.

To complement a dramatic branch centerpiece dotted with oranges, wooden napkin rings printed with guests’ names were placed atop mini oranges and topped with fringed white tulip petals.

At the Elle Women in Hollywood awards this month at the Four Seasons Los Angeles at Beverly Hills, long-time producer Caravents worked with Elle event director Katie Crown on the overall vision and event design. Blush tones in details from the linens to the roses created a feminime feel along with graphite mirror runners with clear cylinder vases.

Monochrome marigolds and table numbers in champagne bottles sat atop rustic tables at the Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic, designed by BrownHot Events, in Los Angeles earlier this month.

The nonprofit Imagine1Day—which supports education in Ethiopia—hosted its first gala, honoring Tracy Anderson, at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills on November 19. To label each seat, organizers placed stones emblazoned with individual guest names on tabletops.

At the luxury wedding summit Engage!13, Gifts for the Good Life used glowing birdcage lanterns as escort cards, which guests pulled from Todd Events' live hydrangea wall at the closing gala.

For another idea using apples, the National Association for Catering and Events 2012 gala in Washington had a "once upon a time" theme, with details from story books—including calligraphy seating cards that nodded to the poisoned apple in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Among the creative place card offerings from Cambridge, Massachusetts-based LoLo Event Design are ones meant to look like messages in a bottle with names on ribbons tied to the corks and numbers inside—suitable for an event with a beach or adventure theme.

Online retailer ModCloth launched its first in-person fit shop event in Los Angeles, known as ModCloth IRL, with an April luncheon for fashion bloggers and other social influencers in that sphere. Wildflowers in shot glasses with name plaques served as seating cards, prompting many guests to share their own arrangement on social media.