Wedding Place Cards

If you are having a plated meal at your wedding, you will need to indicate who is sitting where and who is getting what meal type. Instead of going the traditional route with paper place cards and a cow or chicken sticker, why not make your wedding place cards a work of art! Below is a step-by-step process to create your own wedding place cards.

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Step 1 - Design the Names of All Guests

To get started with this project, you are going to need to pull out your trusty Cricut.

What is a Cricut, you might be asking? A Cricut is a cutting machine that pairs with a computer or mobile app to make your designs come to life. You can cut vinyl, paper, cardstock, and so much more! You can even use it to address your envelopes- the options are really endless. There are several different Cricut machines, but I use this one. If you don't have a Cricut yet, it is definitely worth the investment for wedding planning!

Open Cricut Design Space and create a new project. All you will need to do is add text with all of the first names of each guest attending your wedding. Don't worry about formatting the names, your Cricut will automatically cut them in a way to use the least amount of vinyl.

If you have a Cricut Access subscription, you will have access to many different fonts. If not, you can either use a font that is already on your computer, or you can download other fonts from a site like Font Bundles. Feel free to choose any font that matches the style of your wedding! If you want to learn more about downloading fonts, check out more details in my Wedding Welcome Sign tutorial.

Step 2 - Prep Your Supplies

Next, you will want to gather your supplies to cut your vinyl. You can use any color permanent vinyl that matches your theme. I used this vinyl from Amazon! You will also want to gather your acrylic hexagons so you know what size the names should be.

Step 3 - Cut Your Vinyl

Measure the size of your acrylic hexagons and adjust the size of the names in Design Space accordingly. Once you have all the names sized correctly, you are ready to cut!

Click "Make" in the upper right corner to get started with the cutting process. If you use the same vinyl as me, you will need to put your vinyl on a cutting mat (you don't need to do this if you are using Smart Vinyl). Make sure your vinyl (and mat, if needed) are long enough for your design. Otherwise, you will need to cut in several batches. Follow the directions on screen and on your Cricut to cut. You will not need to mirror this project.

Step 4 - Weed And Place Your Vinyl

Once your design has been cut, you will need to weed out the outline of your design so that only the letters remain. Depending on the font you use, it may be helpful to do a reverse weed to prevent losing small details.

To reverse weed, you will place the transfer tape onto the vinyl prior to weeding. Then, remove the backing of the vinyl. Once the sticky side of the vinyl is exposed, you can remove the unneeded portion so that only the name remains attached to the transfer tape.

Take your weeded design and transfer tape and center it on the acrylic hexagon. Remove the transfer tape and VOILA!

Pro Tip: You can place a cutting mat underneath your acrylic to use as a guide for spacing and to help ensure your design is straight.

Don't mind me struggling to get the backing off of the vinyl at first in this video. Most of them came off super easily! But of course the one I recorded was a problem (:

Step 5 - Create Your Wedding Place Card

Once you have placed the name on your acrylic, it is time to add the gold leaf! The first step is to paint on the leaf adhesive where you want to add the gold leaf. You only need a very small amount!

Once added, you will wait for the adhesive to turn from white to clear. Then, you are ready to add the gold leaf! Take some of the gold leaf flake and place it gently onto the adhesive.

Once dry, you can gently brush off the excess with your finger!

Finally, paint the back of your acrylic place card to match your wedding colors. I painted a strip down the middle, but you could paint the entire shape if you want. I double dipped and also used the color to denote which meal the guest was getting (black for beef, white for chicken)!

You will see in these videos that I painted the back first before adding the names and gold flake. If you are painting the place cards a specific color based on the meal the guest will be getting, I would recommend painting as the last step! That way, you can have all of the names prepped ahead of time and can quickly paint them after you receive RSVPs. Painting is the least time consuming step, so you will stress less in the weeks leading up to your wedding :)

You did it!

Congrats, you have made beautiful, custom wedding place cards! After taking some time to admire your work, you can cross this off the list and start your next DIY project! Happy planning!