Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Wedding Wednesday: Please Be Seated


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...



16 comments:

  1. The constellations idea is amazzzzing. I sort of don't even care that it makes no sense, it's so beautiful.


    Sounds like what you guys are landing on will be a good mix of design + functionality.

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  2. I love the idea of using little boarding passes or tickets or something with your seating chart! admittedly I've never had to plan out a seating plan for a wedding or anything, but I think doing your escort cards in the style of a plane/train/whatever pass would be really cute. it's like they're ticket to the reception or something :) I don't know. my brain really likes creative projects like that.

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  3. Yes those pins are adorable!! I think the constellation chart might be cute, but yeah I'm a little nauseous just looking at it.

    Like I said before, I kind of loved the seating chart experience. We printed all our guests names on like little label cards with the name of their table below them and set them all up in wine corks (I LOVE wine) in alphabetical order at the front entrance. So it was easy to find your name. We didn't number our tables (yikes right?), but named them using places and things that were important to us. Then we printed the name of the table on one side of a small poster board type thing and the reason why it meant something to us on the other, and they were in the center of the tables with the flowers. The guests might have had to walk a round a bit to find the table (maybe??), but it wasn't that huge of a room so it wasn't really hard. We tried to match the guests to certain locations when we could. For example, seating undergrad friends at the undergrad college table. Seating my old sorority sisters at the table bearing our sorority's name. Our head table was the location of where we were engaged (The Biltmore Estate.) So I loved it because it was personal, and our friends had fun walking around during the cocktail hour reading about the different places. I think there are so many fun ideas and completely logical ideas too that you really can't go wrong here.

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  4. I'm with Jon. I think it would be SO much fun to arrange seating at a large event. It's like matchmaking, but for friends & family.

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  5. it's GORGEOUS! but can you imagine trying to find your name after two glasses of fizz? I'd end up trying to climb the roof to reach the actual stars.

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  6. haha that is true! I do hope that people make new friends at our wedding :)

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  7. Jon was actually really gung-ho about doing something other than numbers for our tables! I LOVE the idea of that - we just couldn't figure out what we wanted to do and it ended up being a faff so we just sort of gave up. One of the things we considered was making each table a battle in which the British fought the Americans - so one could be Yorktown and another could be The Burning of the White House - with little explanations underneath for info. I still kinda want to do that... maybe you can convince us... haha!

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  8. I have anxiety about our seating chart. Lol I hope it goes better than I predict! I don't know what we plan on doing yet but I know it'll be crafty somehow!

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  9. You have the absolute right idea. Use the seating chart for YOU GUYS. The guests won't care (or need) a seating chart. Just have their cards in ABC order with the table number listed right there on that card. Done and done. That's what we did, too.

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  10. Mine was similar to the bottom right - our stationary designer came up with it. It wasn't inventive but that didn't matter to me.
    I love your idea - functional yet crafty.



    And can I just say that, although it might be creepy, I'm getting excited as the days countdown to your big day. I can't wait to see everything you've talked about here come together!

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  11. Ours was similar to the bottom left one. I got a 24-slot picture frame and filled each with the table numbers and names and filled the rest with pictures of us!

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  12. haha I wish I had more of a desire to be crafty! I missed that gene :/

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  13. ME TOO! not creepy at all - I wish you guys could come!

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I love reading your thoughts and suggestions! Please do leave a comment so we can get to know each other better.