DIY Place Cards from Vintage Book Pages

These DIY place cards are sure to rock your wedding (or any event — perhaps a dinner party!) with their beautiful look and the hidden personal note glued on the inside. When guests leave your wedding/event, they will want to take their place card and keep it in a safe place forever because of the presentation and the note.

Because this blog is a place of honesty, I have a confession to make: I am not married — not even engaged. But I, like multitudes of women (and effeminate men) that I know, have fallen victim to Pinterest pressure. I recently realized something that has thrown me into a panic: I don’t have any details of my wedding planned.

Said event won’t happen in the near future, but with all the DIY stuff I am planning to do, I should get started now. Thus I have begun to think about the little things because one can never be too prepared. Today’s meditation was on place cards. I am going to go with vintage book page DIY place cards with notes in the middle directed to my respective guests. Why? Because my number one goal for my theoretical wedding is having lots of clever details and goodies that guests want to take home.

For those of you who are closer to getting married (or having a party, for that matter) than I am, I have made a tutorial and a couple of samples. Let’s get started on making these DIY place cards:

First things first: wrangle up card stock (I used black), a vintage book, and any light-colored paper. Then download this DIY Place Card Template and cut the squares out (for tracing around) to make things a little easier. If you don’t have a printer, no problem. You can easily make your own templates; here are the measurements:

• Square of vintage book paper – 2.5″ x 2″ (6.4 cm x 5.1 cm)
• Card stock rectangle (to be folded over to make a tented place card) – 4.5″ x 3″ (11.4 cm x 7.6 cm)
• Rectangle of blank paper (to write your personal note on; optional) – 2.5″ x 4″ (6.4 cm x 10.2 cm)

Once you cut out your vintage book paper, write your guest’s name on it using any font you like. Directly below I have used a broad calligraphy nib to write “Abby”, and a few photos below I have used classic cheating calligraphy to write “Jack”.

Now, use a paintbrush to paint glue on the back of your vintage book page square. It is very important than you paint the glue rather than just squirt it on because a smooth glue application (i.e. application by brush) ensures no bumps.

Glue the vintage book page square onto your tented card stock. Try to center it as best you can.

Now write your personal note! And use any font you’d like. I’d have the bride do some and the groom do some. Or maybe collaborate to do all of them. It’s really nice to have guests that feel appreciated, and it’s wonderful to have a way to let them know how you feel and how important it is to you that they are there.

Glue your notes on the inside of your DIY place cards (again, PAINT the glue on the back of the note) and give the glue a few seconds to dry before you fold the cards.

And voilà! Beautiful DIY place cards with a splash of vintage.

I think these would be great for romantic weddings, or just for weddings of people who love books. They’d be even more gorgeous with handmade paper flowers (or real flowers, for that matter).