Newer blog post
more in Blog
Older blog post
Newer blog post by Mrs. Octopus
more by Mrs. Octopus (oldest)
Older blog post by Mrs. Octopus
Mrs. Octopus's Picture
Mrs. Octopus, Boston, MA/Pittsburgh, PA Age and Occupation: 25, Grad Student Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Graphics Operator for TV News Engagement Date: May 6th, 2009 Wedding Date: September 2010 Venue: Heinz Chapel Ceremony, Museum Reception About Me: When my best friend dragged me to a toga party in our freshmen year of college, I was not expecting to meet my future husband; but seven years later, here we are. I'm a crazy-organized planner at heart, and I am a great lover of random trivia, books, chocolate, blogs, new and exciting adventures, mockumentary-style television, and anything heavily flavored with bright orange fake cheese powder. We're planning a festive and fun mini-destination wedding in the place where we met: fabulous Pittsburgh, PA! I can't wait to marry the man I love!
About Mrs. Octopus

I Hope I’m Not Alone…

May 4th, 2010 @ 8:50 am by Mrs. Octopus

… in having certain random little wedding planning details on the horizon that strike fear into my heart. Mine? Escort cards. Shudder.

I know exactly where my dread of escort cards came from. About a month after Mr. O and I got engaged, I attended a childhood friend’s wedding with my family. Later, my sister and I were talking about all the behind-the-scenes work that goes into pulling off a wedding, and she said, “Just think about that place card table from today. We spent barely thirty seconds walking up to that table, grabbing our cards, and walking away without a second thought, but SOMEONE had to go buy those little cards, make a seating chart for all one hundred and fifty people, write every single person’s name and table number ON the little cards, alphabetize them all, then arrange them nicely on the table.” Gulp. Ever since that conversation, those damn little cards have been the one particular detail that gives me heart palpitations.

But no more! In my ritual quarterly browsing of Martha Stewart Weddings, I noticed a potential solution to my problem:

I Hope I'm Not Alone... :  wedding pittsburgh placecards stationery Seating

(Source)


Seating chart boards! Specifically, the seating chart boards used at the wedding of Hello!Lucky designer Eunice Moyle. I’ve seen seating chart boards before, but hers really caught my eye, because they incorporate my love of both kooky fonts AND graphics of vintage-style hands pointing at things, a la our save-the-dates.

I Hope I'm Not Alone... :  wedding pittsburgh placecards stationery Seating01

Eunice used table namesake animals, rather than numbers—hence the little pink tabs with the animal pictures. (Source)

Now, I’m sure we would not have ours made so ginormously… I think the more realistic option would be to go poster-sized, then placed on an easel to display during cocktail hour.

Obviously, it’s way too early to be creating something like this (we’re still hammering out the details of who is even on the guest list, EYE ROLL TIMES ONE MILLION) but I feel relieved in knowing that I can avoid the task of writing everyone’s names on the little cards entirely. Especially since I completely plan on farming the design of these boards out to our awesome stationery designer.

Oh, and also, if you haven’t seen it already, you should go check out the rest of the photos from Eunice Moyle’s wedding! Especially if you’re into hot pink and/or quirkiness, but even if you just like drooling over events with an extremely cohesive style, brought to life beautifully.

Do you have a wedding task that you just dread? Have you found a way to manage it as painlessly as possible yet?

Tags: pittsburgh, placecards, stationery |
advertisement below
Newer blog post
more in Blog
Older blog post
Newer blog post by Mrs. Octopus
more by Mrs. Octopus (oldest)
Older blog post by Mrs. Octopus

19 Responses to “I Hope I’m Not Alone…”

1.
sunnydebs
Member
sunnydebs (message)  784 posts, Busy bee

This is a lovely idea. :-) Just be careful because this is one of the LAST details you can take care of, since you have to know who’s coming to make the seating arrangements. That can change up until the last minute, and so you’ll want to put this sort of thing off until the week of the wedding. If you’re assigning it to someone else to handle, you’ll want to make sure your communication with them is great because you won’t have the luxury of a lot of time for this project.

 
2.
lairdea
Member
lairdea (message)  275 posts, Helper bee

yes. escort tables strike fear in my heart as well. Mostly because certain guests have ALREADY threatened to not RSVP until the last minute. Um……… thanks? Anyway, seating charts are a beautiful eco-friendlier option, with less headache for me.

 
3.
xoxokristin
Member
xoxokristin (message)  541 posts, Busy bee

Blech, I know what mean. I feel like I have every little detail planned out except for the escort cards, and I honestly do not give a *beep* about them. I’ve got no idea in this little head of mine, I just know I want something simple.

 
4.
Mrs. Pug
Bee
Mrs. Pug (message)  3,753 posts, Honey bee

i’ve seen a few escort “boards” similar to this and i think they’re a great idea–it’s something that’s fun and more impressive than regular escort cards. but yes, scale it down to poster size!

 
5.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Snow (message)  916 posts, Busy bee

I’ve totally delegated this task to Mr. Snow *dun dun dun*, but I loooooove the escort board pics you included (and that entire wedding…love it).

 
6.
Guest Icon
Guest
Jennifer

What I really love about this board is that it has the removable tabs with the table for people to take with them, solving two potential problems: 1) guests looking at a printed seating chart, then getting distracted by conversation on their way to the table and forgetting where they’re sitting — I speak as one who has done this and 2) last-minute changes would be easier to deal with since you could just swap them around. (On the other hand, it does mean a little more work for whomever is setting it up…)

 
7.
Miss Hermit Crab
Bee
Miss Hermit Crab (message)  3,564 posts, Sugar bee

That’s a very cool idea - that one in your post kind of looks like the swim buddy board at my sleepaway camp…and I love that!

 
8.
Miss Cardigan
Bee
Miss Cardigan (message)  8,645 posts, Bee Keeper

I know what you mean! I thought I had escort cards all figured out, but then I keep changing my mind, and now it’s just stressful!

 
9.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Trail Mix (message)  6,328 posts, Bee Keeper

Yeah, I’m super nervous about escort cards and the seating arrangement in general…Ack!

 
10.
alivoo01
Member
alivoo01 (message)  2,622 posts, Sugar bee

I too am freaking out about doing the escort cards - eek! I love this table assignment via the board!! So much fun and different. How to do such a thing tho - guess I’ll be sticking to handwriting my escort cards. Sigh…

 
11.
Member Icon
Member
corrc7131 (message)  198 posts, Blushing bee

Were doing this too! We’re trying to save on space and we kind of have an urban loft feel, so we plan on hanging the signs fromt he celing. Hope it works as well when we actually try it as it did in my head.

 
12.
Guest Icon
Guest
A.Future.Mrs.

I’m a bride who HATES to leave things until the last minute and of course you need to wait to make escort cards. My solution? We have small envelopes that we write the names of people who have RSVP yes to our wedding and on the inside are cards with the table number they are seated at. This way, I can do most of the escort cards in advance and all I have to do is switch the inside cards if I need to make table adjustments.

 
13.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Hamster (message)  4,046 posts, Honey bee

We need to tackle this as well - what a pretty board though!

 
14.
Marinara
Member
Marinara (message)  392 posts, Helper bee

We’re doing a seating chart, too, but we’re just putting it in the program. We decided to go this route because we have very little room for displays in our rose garden reception — but it ends up having the added perk of being EASY! :)

 
15.
krissybee
Member
krissybee (message)  3,921 posts, Honey bee

seating arrangements in general are a task i am not looking forward to…. ack! so much to think about!!!!

 
16.
aunt pol
Member
aunt pol (message)  1,473 posts, Bumble bee

Nobody does escort cards here, everyone does boards. Not that big, though!!

 
17.
Miss Giraffe
Bee
Miss Giraffe (message)  4,216 posts, Honey bee

I have totally seen this! I loved it then and I love it now!

 
18.
Guest Icon
Guest
Jenny

I love your link to Eunice’s wedding. Such a whimsical affair!

All the weddings I have been to have gone without any kind of seating arrangement. Usually I had to sit next to somebody I had never met before. Sort of awkward… Seating arrangements are much classier and help the guests get comfortable at their table.

 
19.
jordynrose
Member
jordynrose (message)  6,351 posts, Bee Keeper

This.is.my.dread.

 

Leave a Reply


You can also just...

Newer blog post
more in Blog
Older blog post
Newer blog post by Mrs. Octopus
more by Mrs. Octopus (oldest)
Older blog post by Mrs. Octopus

Visit our sister sites eHarmony
Online Dating
eHarmony Advice
Dating Advice
Project Wedding
Wedding Songs
JustMommies
Pregnancy Calendar

Copyright 2004-2012, Weddingbee.com
 

Find your vendors on Weddingbee

Real reviews from brides in your area!

Favors by Weddingbee

  • Favors by season

Shop Now »

Mrs. Octopus
Mrs. Octopus

Mrs. Octopus, Boston, MA/Pittsburgh, PA Age and Occupation: 25, Grad Student Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Graphics Operator for TV News Engagement Date: May 6th, 2009 Wedding Date: September 2010 Venue: Heinz Chapel Ceremony, Museum Reception About Me: When my best friend dragged me to a toga party in our freshmen year of college, I was not expecting to meet my future husband; but seven years later, here we are. I'm a crazy-organized planner at heart, and I am a great lover of random trivia, books, chocolate, blogs, new and exciting adventures, mockumentary-style television, and anything heavily flavored with bright orange fake cheese powder. We're planning a festive and fun mini-destination wedding in the place where we met: fabulous Pittsburgh, PA! I can't wait to marry the man I love!

Boards
Classifieds

Blog Calendar
February 2012
SunMonTueWedThuFriSat
2930311234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
26272829

Weddingbee Bios
Wiki
More