Most banquet halls or wedding venues will have standard, run-of-the-mill table numbers for seating arrangements. Why not include a fun twist for your guests by seating them at tables labeled with something other than numbers? There are several options to choose from, and here are just a few examples:
– Cities: Seat your guests in romantic cities, like Paris, London or Rome. Or choose places that are more urban and hip: Toronto, Los Angeles or Dubai. Whatever the cities you chose, you can personalize them as much as you like by choosing places that are meaningful to you or your guests. Guests will get a pleasant surprise when their place cards direct them to a city!
To Do: Choose as many cities as you have tables. You can choose random cities from around the world, European Cities, American Cities or any other cities you like. Here are some ideas: European Cities: Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, Venice, Athens, Madrid, Moscow, London American Cities: Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, Washington Around the World: Helsinki, Dubai, Tel Aviv, Berlin, Toronto, Santiago, Sydney, Beijing Once you’ve chosen the cities you would like to use, print the city names in a stylish, easy to read font on good quality card stock. This can be done at home on your PC. You can chose to include a picture with the city name, too. For example, the title Paris can be printed next to a picture of the Eifel Tower. Likewise, London can be paired with a picture of Big Ben. Print two cities per page of cardstock or heavy weight paper and carefully cut along the middle to produce two equal size table cards! Then, simply have the staff at the banquet hall insert the city names into the table number holders instead of the usual numbers. This idea is sure to be a hit, far and wide!
– Playing Cards: Ready to take a gamble? Seat your guests at the Queen of Hearts or the Jack of Diamonds! Great for a whimsical touch, actual playing cards can be incorporated into the place card design!
To Do: Once you have chosen which guests are sitting where, you can assign a playing card to each table. In this way, each guests’ place card can be a playing card with their name printed on it. What’s more, the table identifier can be a jumbo playing card, available for purchase at most specialty gift shops. If you have a smaller number of wedding guests (13 tables or under), you can designate each table to be a specific card value (for example, ace) and place all four aces into the table number holder. Thus, guests with seemingly different place cards will all come together to find that they are sitting at the “ace” table, regardless of suit! For this idea to work, you simply need to purchase a few matching decks of playing cards and some complimenting labels. If your calligraphy is up to snuff, you could even hand-write guests’ names on the playing cards with permanent ink! So roll the dice and let your creative side take over!
– Colours: Use hardware store paint chips to tell guests which table they are sitting at! Guests will have to match up the swatch of colour on their place card to a swatch of colour at their table! Best of all, the colours can be wildly vibrant, subdued pastels, or complementary to your wedding colours!
To Do: Visit the hardware store to pick out paint chip samples in colours that suit your style! Some things to consider include what season your wedding will be taking place, existing décor in the banquet hall or venue, as well as your chosen wedding colours. Once you have decided what colours you are going to use, make sure you have enough paint chips with that colour – you will need enough colour swatches for each place card, as well as the table card. If your paint chip has several colours on it, choose the colour you would like to use and either cut out the entire square with scissors, or use a large round hole punch to create even circles of colour. You can then glue these colour swatches onto guests’ place cards with hot glue or another suitable adhesive. If the paint chip you have chosen is of one colour, consider making that your guests’ place card! You can add their name to it by affixing a printed label or printing their name in permanent ink! Let your true colours shine through with this unique idea!
Wild Colours: fuchsia, canary yellow, lime green, peacock blue, orange
Pastels: light yellow, pale pink, lilac, minty green
Primary Colours: yellow, red, royal blue, bright green
Ombre colours: reds (burgundy, scarlet, bright red, pink, pale pink); blues (navy blue, royal blue, sky blue, pale blue); purples (aubergine, royal purple, violet, lilac, pale purple)
Whatever you choose instead of table numbers, it is a thoughtful detail that will delight your guests and add a touch of personality to your wedding. Browse through our Planning and Ideas section for more ideas!
