Festive Catering Materials: Printing for Banquets and Parties

Festive catering materials — place cards, menus, buffet name cards, ingredient and allergen stickers, aprons and staff clothing — are usually ordered as a set for one event season, and with us the paper and sticker items are ready in 1–3 business days. Promotional products with your logo (thermal mugs, lunch boxes, bottle openers) should be planned for 6–10 business days: 4–7 days production plus 2–3 days delivery. If your December corporate event schedule is already set, it pays off to print the whole season in one batch — at 500 stickers instead of 100 pieces, the unit price drops several times over.

What caterers actually need during the December season

In contract catering (NACE 56.22), the list of materials repeats from one event to the next. In practice, it falls into three groups:

• For the table and buffet: table numbers, guest name cards, menus, buffet dish name cards, wine lists, QR cards for the table.
• For food and packaging: ingredient and allergen stickers, best-before labels, sealing stickers for boxes and bags, transport marking.
• For staff and the venue: aprons and polo shirts with your logo, lanyards for staff, a roll-up banner stand or banner at the entrance, signage for the cloakroom and bar.

Place cards and menus: formats and materials

Standard solutions that work well at a banquet:

• Guest name cards — 90×50 mm or 100×70 mm, foldable (tent card), 300–350 g/m² card stock. If names aren't known yet, we print the design with a blank field to be filled in by hand.
• Menus — A5 or A4, 300 g/m² card stock; if used over several evenings, matte laminate is recommended so fingerprints and stains don't show.
• Buffet name cards — A6 or 105×74 mm with allergen markings; convenient to print with space to stick on a changeable dish name.
• Table numbers — double-sided, 350 g/m², or large-format on 3 mm PVC if used frequently.

We print all of these groups in digital printing from 1 piece, so you can start with a single test copy and only then run the full batch.

Labels and stickers for food

Stickers are the most frequently repeated order for caterers. The choice depends on where the sticker ends up:

• Paper stickers on rolls — for ingredients, weight and date; easy to apply by hand from a roll, suitable for cardboard boxes.
• PP film stickers — moisture-resistant, suitable for cold and condensation-prone packaging, frozen products.
• Transparent stickers — when the product or the bag's contents need to be visible; often ø40–60 mm for sealing.
• Contour-cut logos — irregularly shaped brand stickers for napkin packaging and gift boxes.

For ingredient and allergen text, we recommend printing at least a 6 pt font and leaving room for translation — several clients order bilingual or trilingual stickers in a single batch, splitting the run between versions.

Aprons, polo shirts and staff clothing

We print aprons, polo shirts and jackets using DTF transfer (good for small runs and full-colour logos), screen printing (cost-effective from 30–50 pcs), or embroidery, which looks neater on an apron or cap and withstands frequent washing.

Standard print placements: left chest 110×90 mm, front or back up to 280×210 mm, sleeve 80×60 mm, embroidery up to 90×90 mm. More on materials and techniques in the garment printing section.

Indicative prices and quantities

The table below shows typical quantities for a banquet set. Prices are indicative, excl. VAT; the exact amount depends on quantity, material and the number of print colours.

Files, artwork and deadlines

Please send logos and designs in vector format (.ai, .eps, .pdf, .svg), CMYK; raster images at 300 dpi at actual size. If you don't have a vector file, we can redraw it — this usually takes one business day.

Within one business day of your request, we send a quote online and as a PDF with product images, prices, print placement, set-up fee and turnaround time for each item; on request, we also prepare a 3D view with your logo. The artwork must be approved by email — the production timeline starts from that approval. For December events, we recommend confirming promotional products by mid-November; paper print items can be ordered as little as a week before the event.

Frequently asked questions

How long do place cards and menus take?

Our own print items — stickers, cards, menus, posters — take 1–3 business days from artwork approval. Urgent jobs can be arranged by agreement, often within one day.

Can I order just 20 place cards or a single menu?

Yes. In digital printing, we work from 1 piece. The unit price for small quantities is higher, so it's often more cost-effective to print one batch for all of the season's events.

Which stickers are suitable for frozen or cold food?

PP film stickers — they are unaffected by moisture and condensation. Paper stickers are better suited to dry cardboard packaging used indoors.

Can you print ingredients and allergens in several languages?

Yes, we often print bilingual and trilingual labels, or split the run between language versions. Please send the text ready to use — we place it in the artwork, but the customer is responsible for the content.

How can I print aprons in small quantities?

For up to 20–30 pieces, DTF transfer is the most cost-effective, as there's no screen preparation involved. From 30–50 pieces with one or two colours, we recommend screen printing; for frequent washing, embroidery up to 90×90 mm is suitable.

Can guest gifts be received already packed as sets?

Yes, we assemble gifts from several products, for example a thermal mug and a bottle opener in a drawstring bag. Please allow extra time for assembly — usually 1–2 business days.

Send us your event schedule, quantities and logo at info@attaprint.lv or message us on WhatsApp at +371 25776699 — we'll prepare a quote with prices, print placements and turnaround times within one business day.