Friday, March 19, 2010

Where do I sit?!?

Have you ever heard of 'within the ribbon' cards?  Many, many years ago they were something I came across that a girlfriend decided to include in her invitations for her wedding.  Basically, for the 'privileged' or family guests at your wedding, you are providing them a little card that says they shall be seated 'within the ribbon' at the ceremony.  They present the card to an usher who then takes them up to the front of the ceremony aisles.  I don't know that I would give guests cards like that, but I do know that I want the front rows of our ceremony aisles reserved for family. 

I came across some great inspiration pics via my stationery lady, Stacia of Serendipity Design.  I asked her to create signs for me to place on chairs at the ceremony like these:



This week I got the samples in the mail!!!  Here's the reserved chair cards that we will be having made to place on specific chairs and rows at our wedding:



We will place one of these cards on the end chair of the front row aisles to show which family members should sit there.  This way, our ushers just need to ask the guests if they are family and then if they are, they ask them their last name and seat them in the corresponding row.  I know, I know...some people think this is TOO planned and overboard with the organization.  What can I say?  I am a control freak :)

Oh, and here's what the cards will look like that will go on the chairs for the Mother of the Bride and Mother of the Groom:



Then for the reception, I have another little thing for the guests.  Everyone does the 'menu cards' at place settings nowadays.  But I never liked those...unless you are getting served a plated meal and want to be sure you know what you're eating.  But for us, we're having a buffet, so the menu cards will be placed on the buffet tables of course - no need for one at each place setting. 

I did have some fun info to share with the guests though that I thought would be helpful for them.  And I also wanted something to show them where to sit at their table.  I decided instead of tucking a menu card into each guest's napkin, we could tuck a helpful 'info' card into their napkin and at the top of each card would be the guest's name peeking out so they know where to sit. 

Here's what they look like, though I did ask Stacia to please move the guest's name down a bit on the page and make it larger so it stands out more:



They will stick out of the napkins similar to this photo:


So that's the stationery stuff I have going on right now.  Just trying to finalize the last of the RSVP's so we can get the placecards printed up...only 17 more people to chase down!!!

Have you given any thought to where you want people to sit at your ceremony and reception?  Do you care?  Are you trying to find some creative ways to direct guests to their seats or reserve seats?

** And stay tuned for a post about how to do easy 'seat assignments' on this Tuesday!

8 comments:

Shannon said...

For the ceremony we are just reserving the first row or two for immediate family- parents, grandparents, siblings etc.

For the reception I'm doing table assignments but not seat assignments. That was more work than I wanted :)

JEM - Aqua Bride said...

I haven't decided if I want escort cards or a seating chart to direct guests to their tables, but I know i'll have place cards since men and women are having different favors.

Kim said...

I love how every piece of your wedding paper ties together so nicely! We are definitely going with a seating chart - escort cards for 415 makes my head spin :)

Born to be Mrs. Beever said...

I guess I should mention that we are only having those reserved chair cards for the first 5 or so rows (because we do have a family that is that freaking BIG!). But for the remaining 7 or 8 rows, we are letting guests sit wherever they want - no bride or groom side and no reserved chairs for every guest at the ceremony...just family.

Bee @ BP Wedding said...

I love this!! They turned out so nice! I love how you have a consistent and cohesive theme going on with all your wedding stationary! :)

Bee @ BP Wedding said...

Oops I meant *stationery*. I hate commonly misspelled words! haha.

Mrs T said...

Love that you are this organised. Man I could have done with your help at my wedding! I only thought about placecards for seats the night before at about 1am. Mr B wrote reserved for family on a piece of paper and plunked it on the seats. I so wished I had time for something pretty. You are so good!!!

P.s. Have an AWESOME bachelorette party. Will be thinking of you in Oz!

Sarah said...

I like this! Though I would hope that most people would automatically KNOW that were they belong, you know?
Thanks for answering my question! I'll have to talk it over with my husband and see what he thinks about it. I like the idea but idk how it'd go with our families!

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