The Making of Escort Cards

First things first: what are escort cards? They are a handy way to direct guests to their assigned table. Place cards are set on the dining table and direct guests to their seats at the table. We'll have enough trouble arranging the seating plan without having to worry about who sits next to who, so I'm going with just escort cards.

I've seen some awesome ideas for escort card displays. Attach them to items that fit your wedding theme, such as sea shells or vintage keys.  Incorporate them into your favours as labels on a box of truffles. Get inspired by the season and use them to decorate candy apples for fall or bottles of colourful soda for summer.

Very early in our engagement I fell in love with these multi-coloured cards from Martha Stewart.

What you can't see from this picture is that these hearts are small, which means that the writing is even smaller! God forbid if you have guests over 50 or people with long names!

Since a room full of flowers would be barely enough for me, I decided on a paper flower decoration for my escort cards. Just like the cute hearts, we'll be using card stock in assorted blue shades. My inspiration was the tissue paper pompom tutorial from Martha Stewart and this cute image:

Materials:
tissue paper in colour of your choice
thread that matches the tissue paper or very thin wire
cardboard for tissue paper template
scissors
paper for escort cards

Directions:
1.  Make a cardboard template that measures 8.3 cm long by 5 cm wide and use it to cut tissue paper rectangles. You need 4 layers of paper for each flower.

2. Stack 4 layers of paper together and make a series of accordion folds that are 1.3 cm wide.

3. Cut off the corners to create a rounded shape.

4. Fold the folded paper in half and either twist your wire or tightly tie your thread at this midpoint.

5. Open the folds and pinch them together. Your paper is now as tall as the 1.3 cm accordion fold with each of the folds fanned out on each side.

6. Separate the top layer of paper and gently pull it up and towards the center of the flower. Work on one side, then pull up the same layer on the other side.

7. Continue pulling up each layer to create a flower that's flat on the bottom.

8. Attach the flower to your escort card once the names are printed or written on.