If I did truly receive a nickel for each time a guest told one of my service staff members “I don’t remember which entree I chose…” at a sit-down event or wedding reception, I would never have to work another day in my life!

As caterers, it is always our desire to supply guests with their chosen meal selection in a timely fashion.   We do not want to bother your guests by having to ask what their meal choice was.  Nor do we want to approach dinner service with a fear that so many guests will forget what they ordered and be forced to guess.  This can really cause the meal counts to be skewed, and that is especially horrid for a guest that only eats seafood or is a vegan, as towards the end of service the fish entree could be all gone and only chicken or beef remain.

A simple act of forethought on this subject can so dramatically affect the success of your dinner service, and the experience had by you and your guests at your sit-down reception.  By selecting a way to mark your escort cards to denote entree selection, you assist the service staff, and the guest, by taking the memory work out of the whole process.

We have serviced events where entree selection was marked in ways as simple as varying ink color to more unique ideas like different shaped gems being placed on each sparkly seating card.   At a rustic barn wedding this past summer, the bride had custom line drawings of a pig, cow and chicken designed that were placed on the back of the place cards so that service staff approaching the table could see exactly where the entrees should be delivered.

Let me offer you some inspiration from recent sit-down weddings we have serviced.  In the first photo, our bride added ribbon decor to her place cards that marked pink for beef and black for seafood.

In the second photo, citrus fruit tags lent to the wedding color scheme, as well as denoting lime for seafood, lemon for chicken and orange for pasta.

In the final photo, fall leaves in varying colors denoted Filet Mignon, child’s entree, Vegetarian entree, and Chicken Oscar entree.

While this may seem like a mundane task, it can be a fun way to further weave your theme or decor into more areas of the event, and above all, it truly will make the food service portion of your event run smoothly for your caterer and your guests!