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!