Centerpieces/Table Numbers

The decor at this year's Whitney Museum of American Art gala in New York emphasized materials familiar to artists, such as paintbrushes and sketch pads. Playful centerpieces included table numbers imprinted on silver paint cans.

In Los Angeles last May, nearly 300 artists and art patrons celebrated the Santa Monica Museum of Art’s 25th anniversary at the museum's second annual Precognito gala dinner. Table numbers were painted directly onto the white paper tablecloths.

Here's an on-theme idea for a rustic farm-to-table dinner: At last year's Lowline "Anti-Gala," moss-filled Mason jars served as table numbers.

At the seventh annual Call of the Game dinner in March, held at South Florida's Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, painted guitars served as centerpieces. Oversize guitar picks displaying numbers let guests know at which table to sit.

The tables at a graffiti-theme bar mitzvah designed by David Stark Design and Production, held at Center548 in New York, displayed numbers on spray-paint cans.

For a wedding produced by AaB Creates at the Altman Building in 2012, the table numbers popped out of the pages of open books. The numbers were carved out of the books' pages using an X-Acto knife.

Large graphic table numbers provided the bulk of the decor during the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum's National Design Awards gala in 2011.

Designer David Stark used fluorescent tape provided by 3M to create much of the decor for the National Design Awards gala in 2011. At some of the tables, rolls of the colorful tape added a decorative element to platforms displaying large-scale table numbers.

Instead of going in numerical order at the October 2011 dinner for Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art's anniversary, each table number represented an important year in the museum's 75-year history.

Last year, the National Association for Catering and Events hosted its annual fund-raising gala at the Liaison in Washington, where design elements drew inspiration from classic fairy tales. To add an enchanted-forest feel to the dining table centerpieces, table numbers were spray painted on wood slabs.

Plexiglas table number displays added a reflective element to the tables at a local college prep school's 75th anniversary gala, held in 2010 at the Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa in Hollywood, Florida.

To fit in with the "Passport to the World" theme at the Children's Place Association's Once Upon a Time gala in Chicago in 2009, table numbers were printed on faux passports.

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 Cooper-Hewitt's National Design Awards in New York in 2011, designer David Stark used colorful rolls of tape supplied by 3M as seating cards. The rolls were stacked on rods atop the tables.

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.

At the BizBash New York IdeaFest in 2012, Zak Events promoted its wares with a wall of potted succulents that doubled as both an attention-getting escort card idea and a takeaway with a solid shelf life.

At The New York Times's table at the Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS' Dining by Design benefit in New York in 2004, interior design company Eric Cohler Design made a crossword puzzle using guests' names to serve as seating cards.

Last year, the Holiday Chic Suite popped up on Chicago's Michigan Avenue, where Debi Lilly of A Perfect Event oversaw the design—including seating cards pinned to green apples with sparkly tacks.

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.

Debi Lilly of A Perfect Event also designed a tabletop for the show. Lilly's inspiration was "the new, green Garden of Eden." Her installation used vintage cutlery and glassware and lush, springy floral arrangements. There were also individual flower-topped cakes on each place setting.

During Golden Globes weekend this year in Los Angeles, W hosted an event at A.O.C. in celebration of its picks for so-called "Hollywood It girls." Covered glass dishes on the tabletops provided feminine flair alongside pink blooms.