
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.
Photo: Jessica Castro Photography

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.
Photo: Richard Patterson/Courtesy of Cooper-Hewitt

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.
Photo: Chelisse Michaels Photography for Elan Artists

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.
Photo: Carolyn Curtis/BizBash

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.
Photo: BizBash

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.
Photo: Maypole Studios Photography

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.
Photo: Evelyn Alas

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.
Photo: Kjeld Mahoney Photography

A shoot at a modern oceanside venue featured escort cards displayed under a deer head sculpture growing out of a wall of roses. “Escort cards are the perfect place for some playfulness," writes Dowling Coppola. "We cut out the shape of antlers into a few of our escort cards—an homage to the enormous installation of rose petals surrounding our faux deer head—which was the centerpiece to our escort card display. A simple backdrop can elevate your design to an entirely different level of art.”
Photo: Carla Ten Eyck/Courtesy of The White Dress in Color