Can I use favor bags as placecards?

I'm having pashminas for my favors(women) and something else for guys. Regular favor size boxes don't work (too small), so I was thinking of having regular gift paper bags with a tissue paper inside and a favor in it with a label on the outside of the bag with the guest name and table number... Does it sound weird?

Its definately different - I think "bad" would depend on how it winds up looking, and whether you like it or not.

I personally think that paper pags would look odd and take up a lot of space on the tables - and that it creates a lot of additional waste. Most people probably aren't going to keep the paper bag or tissure paper.

An alternative suggestion is maybe rolling the pashminas, and putting a thin paper strip (about 1-2 inches wide) around them with the persons name and table number - that also cuts down on how much extra stuff you have to bring with you - no paper bags or tissue paper!! And depending on what you get for the guys - you may be able to do something similar with tags or something.

Thank you for the reply! I'm not sure if I said it correctly. Paper bags - I mean gift paper bags. We only have 20 people coming and I didn't want to make a precise seating chart. Just to let everyone know what table they sit at.

I will definitely be rethinking what I'm using as my placecards.

I think it's a neat idea to use your gifts as place holders, but I think I agree a bit with bholthof in that having individual gift bags for everyone on your tables might start to get a bit cluttered. I'm guessing that you'll also be doing your centre pieces and everything on the tables too, so you want to show off all the work you've done for those!

What kind of popped in my head was that instead of having a regular seating chart, which it sounds like maybe you're trying to avoid, you could always have a table set up near the front of your reception area with groupings of your gifts arranged similar to the setup of your tables. So if you had six tables (arranged like they would look on a dice for example) then you could do the same with your gifts, and alternate the rolled pashminas with the guys gifts surrounding a table number.

I definitely think you could do a lot of really neat and creative things with this though so don't give up! I think it would be important for me to have my guests really appreciate all the details. So if that means separating the gifts from the tables completely, or just downsizing them a little so that they don't overwhelm the dinner tables then go for it!

I did think to display the bags with the gifts on a separate table at the entrance of the reception area. They would see the bag with their name and table number, grab it and proceed to their table. But I guess it does sound weird...

I'll just go with traditional placecards and put the gift bags on their seat or give it out later. Oh decisions decisions...

We were thinking of doing something similar but we are having 2 favors.

Favor #1 is a tiny box filled with sample size typical candies of PR. On the label we decided to place the name and the table number these will be at the entrance of the reception.

Favor #2 will be located at the table with the Thank You note

I have just bought small silver picture frames for placecards. I guess it will double as favor #1.

I think that the gift bags on the tables would be too crowded, but maybe you could put them on the chairs, but I guess that would defeat the purpose if you were using them as placecards.

I guess at this point it's a moot point since I'm doing traditional placecards, but I still wanted to explain what I meant by putting it on the table. I meant a separate table, not their dinning tables. I was thinking of having a separate table for favors from which the guests would take their bags and proceed to their seat at their tables.

thank you everybody for your input, it did help me with my final decision.