There are some parts of wedding planning that, completely contrary to my expectations, really drew Jon in. The most surprising thing that he got excited about was choosing cutlery when we went to finalize our registry back in November. (I know; what? He's a strange boy.) But I guess it's not so odd that he thinks that we'll have fun doing our seating plan for the wedding. Clearly you and he are on the same wavelength - it's not a chore, it's a puzzle!
I spent a few minutes being seduced by the quirky and whimsical seating plans all over Pinterest, but then I realized two things:
1. Jon and I, while unique, are neither quirky nor whimsical. There's really no totem that's "us" enough - short of luggage tags, maybe, or baggage claim stickers - that would make sense for us to incorporate into our display. Every time I tried to think of something cute that we could use so we wouldn't just be listing names next to numbers on a board, I came up with things that would need an accompanying narrative to make sense to our guests. (So yes, the photos above are shared here somewhat ironically, even though I think they're sweet.)
2. Even if there were a very "us" object that we could use, the idea of creating a seating chart that could be described as a "display" would be anathema to Jon. So many of the pretty images online are, while gorgeous, not the most logical or functional. For instance, if I had to search through every table number to find my name, I'd give up after the third rustic picture frame. The board with constellations? It's adorable if you're both astronomers or astrophysicists or whatever, but it makes me dizzy no matter how relevant it is.
The seating plan on the bottom right, though, I like. It's organized by table number, which we've decided we don't want to do because then there'd be a queue of guests trying to find themselves on the poster rather than having fun, but I like that it's simple, direct, and clearly tied to the couple's theme. It's easy to create something totally functional that also matches our aesthetic - the timing doesn't work for our graphic designer to make this, so we'll be doing it ourselves, and I'm actually looking forward to this little DIY! I'll get a bulletin board and cover it with cream muslin, and then pin the escort cards (with each guest's name and table number written inside the blank frame of our monogram) on in alphabetical order by surname. Okay, so it's not too demanding a project, but it'll be fun to make something petty and useful! And there's still plenty of opportunity for me to sneak in some cute...
