I was married last year and boy what a DIY adventure that was! I just went through some things and found a DIY name card project that I would love to share. We had our rehearsal dinner at a French bistro and used the wine theme for our place settings. I used wine corks that I found on Etsy as the name card holders.
This project is great for a wine or French themed wedding or party. The product looks professional although the construction is very simple!
For this project, you will need wine corks (used are okay- check out Etsy if you don’t want to drink wine every night for next several weeks), a utility knife, printable place cards (I used Gartner’s #83004 which I picked up at Staples), a pen, and a straight edge such as a ruler.
For this project, I picked up an X-Acto knife kit from Amazon that I love and have used in other projects since. If you are crafty, this is worth the extra money.
The first step in the project is to cut the corks. For each cork, draw a straight line across the top using the pen and ruler. On the bottom, draw two lines about half an inch apart. The center point between the bottom lines should be exactly across from the top line. Using the utility knife, cut along both bottom lines at the same time to slice the bottom flat. This will take some strength and patience, so employ the help of friends or love ones that are not afraid of knives. Next, run the knife across the top edge of the top line about an eighth of an inch into the cork. Then run the knife along the bottom edge of the line, cutting out a “v” from the cork.
One note about cutting the corks is that it does take a little time to do well. It will dull the knife over time and it is not really feasible to cut hundreds of these for an entire wedding. A short cut I did find since I did this is using flat thumb tacks to make the bottom flat instead of cutting them. It does not look as nice, but it will save you a lot of time and headache if you have many to make.
So you have some corks… now time to add the names! Simply print each name on the place cards using the directions with the kit. I used table cards and left both halves folded to make the card firmer. Push each card into the slot on the top of the cork. If it does not fit snugly the first time, run the utility knife across the slit again to make it a little deeper.
Fancy pants wine party ready! For extra personalization, match the wine to name- Every family has a Boone’s Farm uncle 
