A little while back, one of my coworkers got me into a one-week-long origami phase. It was during this time that I decided that origami something would have to make an appearance at my wedding.
I first considered the idea of 1000 cranes. However, as you may imagine, the idea of making 1000 origami cranes was not horribly appealing to me. I even did the math.. “if i make 3 cranes per day..”
My next idea was to include it in the invitation. Since the invitations were going to be home-made anyway, how about a home-made touch? But after (literally) a few weeks of looking for an origami pattern that was a) doable b) pretty and c) flat-ish, I decided that mailing my origami was probably not the best idea.
I finally settled on the idea that I would affix my origami creations to the escort cards. It was not until yesterday, however, that that idea took flight.
When I set out to Michael’s yesterday, I wanted a decorative paper that was red and white. Since red is my accent color and these were going to accent the escort cards, it would need to be red. However, when I arrived, I was extremely disappointed with my selection. Nothing that was red and white was pretty. I skulked around the store for a while and eventually found this:
Not exactly what I wanted, and for a couple reasons:
a) Obviously, no red. But at this point, I had resigned myself to the fact that I would not find pretty red paper and should instead focus on finding pretty green paper.
b) There’s purple and there’s blue paper.. neither of which I would use. But the green made up half the pack, so I decided it was worth it.
BUT:
Each piece is reversible, so although I was buying 4 unique patterns of green paper, I was actually getting 8 different inside/outside combinations. w00t.
This got me thinking that rather than affixing the origami to the escort cart, why not the other way around? And so my project began. Although it’s still underway, I thought I’d share some results..
Tada! Origami lilies! I took step-by-step pictures, so more to come on that.
The last one is my attempt at attaching “Jane Smith’s” escort card. I had bought some floral wire which I used to stick through the bottom of the flower and then through the escort card. I feel very meh about it, so I’ve been trying to brainstorm other stem ideas. At one point, I thought pipe cleaners might work, but FI said exactly what I was thinking: “it might look too arts-and-crafty.” So right.
SO there are still two things up in the air: 1) What do use for stems and 2) How to lay them out. Input needed!
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In an effort to make it easier on Mr. Kiwi and I, we’re assigning tables but not seats. With a guest list totaling 140 people at the most, we’ll have 15 tables of random numbers from the full ten to a meager 6. It’s funny because we have a few tables that filled up fast, since we knew the combination would work, and was happy with it (and happy to LEAVE it).
Unfortunately, this flow of “perfect seat mates” has left us with a few unseatables. Unseatables are the guests who come alone, know no one, and aren’t particularly outgoing and friendly. So, as I know it’s wrong to seat them all at the same table (can you imagine a table full of non-talkers?), I’m going to have to place them at tables with friendly people and big talkers.
I want people at our wedding to be very comfortable, but when it comes to seating guests, it’s so hard to please everyone! As it is, I have to seat my parents at different tables, their families at different tables, and Mr. Kiwi’s mom’s side is seated at a different table from his dad’s side. Drama-rama! It’s so hard playing the diplomat at these things!
How are you going about seating these unseatables?
Although it looks like Mr. Eggplant is diligently studying all the reasons why he’s excited to marry me, he’s really doing our table seating arrangements. 
We’re setting up our reception room with 18 or 19 round banquet tables that seat 8-10 people per table. I know tons of seating software programs exist out there and I could even use MS Excel, but I’m really a hands-on type person. I work much better visually, so I printed a mail merge of my guest list to some address labels and adhered them to a bunch of index cards that I cut in half. Once that was done, it only took Mr. Eggplant and me thirty minutes to finish our table arrangements.
I was worried that the seating people would be much more of a headache, but it was pretty quick and easy. Well, for the most part, anyway. There’s always a little drama involved (I can’t see Guest A near Guest B because they used to date and Guest A is bringing his new girlfriend… I can’t seat the divorced parents next to each other, but which table do we place their children at?).
I am a *bit* worried about some of the fragile dynamics, but everyone is an adult and I trust that our friends and family are more mature than to cause a scene. Although… I ran across one unfortunate incident one Saturday night when Mr. Eggplant took a stroll outside our wedding venue. I wanted to take a peek at what the courtyard set-up would look like while a wedding was in progress. As we walked by the reception, I happened upon a guy in a tuxedo cursing at a nicely dressed older man and woman:
Young man in tux: You keep that crazy woman away from here! Don’t ever bring her near us again!
Older woman to older man (I’m assuming her husband?): (mumbling) That’s it, he’s cut off from everything! That’s the last check I’m writing to them!
I don’t know why, but I got really sad watching that spectacle. Weddings are supposed to be full of joy and excitement and it saddens me to watch when people cannot get past their own differences for one night to celebrate a new beginning for their loved ones. Of all the things that could go wrong at a wedding (cake falling to the floor, flowers coming late, etc), it would devastate me the most to have a dramatic scene between family or friends.
Have you had to deal with touchy dynamics while doing your seating chart? How did you deal with it?
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Ok, so I realize that this has the potential for being the most boring post ever, but I felt it was important to share how I organized our tables so that our Day of Event Coordinator could figure out who was supposed to sit where.If you recall, we have two different favors that we are giving out, and they are to go on the place setting at the table as part of the table decor. This added another element that I needed to manage since I won’t be there setting up, so the following is how I ended up organizing it.
Each of the 13 envelopes above is for a specific table at our reception. I took the table layout that the tent people sent to me and copied it into Visio, but you could use PowerPoint. Then I added the numbers to the middle of the tables and below that I added each table’s name, and how many people are seated at the table.
Each envelope has the corresponding table highlighted so that when you look at the envelope, you know which table’s information is included inside.
On the back of each envelope is a print out of who is sitting at the table from the seating arranger on the Bed, Bath and Beyond website. I also added in who was getting which favor next to each person by putting an ’s’ for Salt and an ‘o’ for Ornament. Lastly, I marked where the dance floor was in relation to that particular table so that there was a reference for where around the table each person is supposed to be.
Inside each envelope is the corresponding table name tent and menu tent as well as an envelope with the table’s place cards in it.
The place cards are 4″ x 3.6″ so that when they are folded they are 2″ x 3.6″
Here’s a shot of one of the place cards standing alongside the back-side of the other place cards. I also marked each one with an ’s’ or an ’o’ so that once the cards are on the table, they can be used as a reference for which favor should go at which place setting.
It is all out of my hands now. Hopefully, my Day-of coordinator will be able to take all this information and use it well.
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Wow, who knew seating 106 people would be so difficult!!
Thankfully I had help from JP, our kitty.
Those blue things are the envelopes for our escort cards. I used the Bed Bath and Beyond seating arranger for a while until I got fed up and needed more instantaneous gratification. Besides, I am a VERY visual person, so it was much easier to figure it out by using the envelopes.
6 days to go!
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Although we must wait until the RSVPs come in to make our seating chart, I’m looking around for ideas. Ideally, we’ll place their place card at their seat, with a large chart detailing who is seated at which tree. Although there aren’t really any examples of this idea, here are others that I’ve seen.
Scroll Chart, by ScrollInABox. Hehehe. Scroll in a box. That reminds me; anyone see that Justin Timberlake SNL skit?
This one looks easy enough to do. Oakville Paper
This is a beautiful example by Calligraphia
So many ideas. Which do you find easier to find your seat? The ones that are alphabetically arranged with your table name/number beside it, or the ones arranged by tables?
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The majority of weddings that I have attended have all been open seating kinds of events, where guests sat wherever they wanted. So when we were planning our wedding, we decided to kick it up a notch and have assigned seating. This meant that we needed escort cards which in turn lead to an escort card display! I had already pulled this picture out of MS Weddings because of the centerpieces shown on the bottom of the page, so when we decided to do assigned seating, I knew exactly where to look for an escort card display.
I headed to my friendly neighbourhood Michael’s craft store for some supplies,
got together all of the pink and brown ribbon I had in my scrapbook supplies and plugged in the glue gun!
I started by wrapping each board in pink Martha Stewart craft paper and taping the paper to the back so that it was tight across the front.
Then I measured out each ribbon and planned the sequence so that the colours alternated nicely. Once I had each strip of ribbon cut I measured out how far apart the cards needed to be and then I glued the ribbon to the boards with hot glue gun glue.
Several small burns on my fingers later I had this!
The escort cards were made by Melissa Chapman, who did all of our stationery. We just had to write the table names on the inside of each card and slip them beneath the ribbon so that the front side remained out. This is what I ended up with!
It took me about four hours to do three boards for 135 escort cards. The cost of the boards, MS craft paper, and ribbons was about $80. But that may be a bit low since I already had most of the ribbon. If you are having escort cards at your wedding, how will you be displaying them?
*Beastie Boys
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