Weddingbee Blog

To take up its post as a menu selection indicator on a placecard, that’s why.

It was followed in short order by a Holstein*…

…and a very confused fish:

Soon, there was an entire animal farm of beasts on our kitchen counter:

As you can see, I went ahead and went with the dollhouse-typewriter-as-placecard-holder idea I waffled on earlier. I ordered 65 of the little guys from Tina’s Dollhouses. Turned out they could only scrounge up 62. Coincidental crazinesses being what they are…we had three guests cancel.

Behold, the unfamiliar sight of a pile of 62 individually-wrapped mini typewriters:

SuperTara of Ephemera chopped up some of the stardream paper used on our invitations and sent it to me, beribboned and perfect:

I then popped the cards into the ol’ Royal one at a time and gave them each a name. So I wouldn’t have to eyeball/guess at the centering of the names, I typed them on a piece of scrap paper first. Then I held the name just above the card to line up the typewriter’s hammer:

I played with a number of different ideas for indicating menu choices before settling on the chicken/fish/cow drawings. I just hated the idea of marring the perfectly typed cards. But then I thought that the sketches would tie in to the pictures on the homemade books for the centerpieces.

I did a quick clipart search, chose the most vintage-looking and simple sketches of each animal, reduced the size of the image, and printed them on vellum.

I then painstaking–er, lovingly–cut each one out before running them through the Xyron sticker maker and applying them to the bottom corners of the cards. Cutting them out was the only way they came out looking remotely good - the big square of vellum just looked sloppy.

As you can see, some are closer cut than others:

Yay for candlelight!

And speaking of imperfections, hand-typed placecards are an OCD person’s worst nightmare. The spacing isn’t straight, some letters jump up higher than others…smudges are not unheard-of. Personally, though, I think it all adds to the authenticity. But I’m just sayin’, is all.

* I know. Holsteins are dairy cows. I needed something iconic and easily recognizable. And cute!

p.s. Sorry for not following up on comments and keeping up with everyone these days. Mad busy-ness chez Lovebug.

How are you guys indicating menu selections at your tables? No brilliant ideas that’ll make me kick myself, please…