If you want to create professional looking place setting cards but the thought of drawing out pencil lines on each individual card fills you with dread, then dread no more!
I’ve got a really easy way to make personalising place cards as easy as anything! This is particularly helpful if you are DIYing your wedding and want to make your own signage and stationery rather than asking a calligrapher like me to do it. I get it, I know how expensive weddings are to organise – I’ll happily help you to DIY your day.
All you need for easy place cards is a light pad to light the way. Now, the great thing is light pads aren’t too expensive. I picked mine up for around £20 and it has worked very well for me. They can vary in price so much however you don’t need to spend a fortune on the more expensive options, a cheaper model works perfectly.
The set up for this option is really important to make the calligraphy itself simple. Check your calligraphy writing size and match this up against a printed document (I have a sheet with each size listed so I can check my writing size against what size font I need to use to print to calligraph over the top to get the same size writing) Add your names centred on the page, using 1.5x or double line spacing between lines and print single sided. When you have printed, fold and/or trim your paper so your labels line up on both sides at the same width as the trimmed paper, then you only need to centre your name vertically in the centre of the card by eye each time.
For an even easier way, did you know you could use the labels wizard in Word to create a custom label size to match your place cards? Once printed, all you need to do is put the placecard over the top and it will already be centred vertically and horizontally (NB you can only do this in the desktop version – the web version has more limited functionality)
I’ve created a template for you to use if you are using the standard 10 cm x 5cm place cards – you can download it here
Want to watch the process in action? Here you go: