Origami Escort Cards

Our wedding had kind of an accidental theme: origami. It started with the 1000 paper cranes folded in our wedding colors, which led to cranes as part of our centerpieces and favors on pretty washi paper. To tie them together a little, I thought that dolling up plain escort cards so that they displayed some pretty paper would be a nice touch.

One of my friends was kind enough to get a picture of his escort card and favor at the wedding for me:

Here are instructions on how I put these together, and the cost breakdown for this project. (Of course, costs can vary -- you can do this with cheaper paper and still have a beautiful finished product!)

The Mock-up:
I bought some extra washi origami that I used to fold the cranes that were be part of the centerpieces (and favors!) for the escort cards. As luck would have it, the width of the origami that I purchased (off of ebay seller oriental-japan) is pretty much exactly the width of a standard escort card that you can buy at Michaels, etc. So, a quick snip with the paper trimmer, stick a label with a guest's name on it (for this example, I just glued paper on it, just for a prototype), and voila!

I used some Avery address labels in the right size (1"x3" labels with the rounded corners were just right), and printed out the guests' names on a printer for a more uniform look, especially since each escort card had different patterned origami as its background! (The pack of origami I bought is all different colors and patterns -- no two appear to be alike, or at least not very many that I can tell.)

Estimated Cost Breakdown for ~100 guests:
Washi Origami: $22.70 (including S&H from Japan)
Plain White Escort Cards: $10.00
Labels: $5.00

Total: $37.70*

* This doesn't include ink to print guests' names. =)

The Process:
Supplies:

• 130 pieces of pre-cut washi origami
• 130 white place cards from Michaels (actually 150 -- 3 packs of 50)
• Tacky Spray
• Masking tape

Instructions:

1. First, I used pages from an old magazine to cover a TV tray and protect it from the overspray of Tacky Spray. Here is my working area with all my supplies on it:
   
2. Next, after testing it out on just one card, I noticed that any part of the cards that got overspray would have a bumpy feel to it, so I laid out a set of 10 or so overlapping escort cards, so that the only bottom half (the front, if you tent it) of the cards were exposed to the Tacky Spray:
   
3. I covered the top half of the top card with masking tape to A) protect it from the Tacky Spray, and B) hold down the cards a little -- the spray can lead to the cards getting blown around a little.
4. Like the instructions on the can said, I sprayed the cards in a side-to-side motion about 6"-8" away from the cards.
5. After I sprayed the cards, I had plenty of time -- a minute -- to start placing the origami pieces onto each card. The only annoying part was that the whole surface was sticky from the spray, so if you try this, be careful not to touch any of the unsprayed cards in this step. =) Start from the top and work your way down to avoid accidentally gluing two cards together.
   
6. I separated the cards once I had put the origami on all the cards. They were usually stuck by a little strip of glue, but it was never so stuck that the paper ripped.
   
7. Here's the finished product, tented!
   

The only thing left to do with these bad boys is print out the labels with our guests' names and table numbers on them!