Signage, table plans and printed pieces
Midlands Wedding Styling Signage, table plans and printed pieces
Printed pieces fail on placement rather than on design. A beautiful table plan in the wrong doorway creates the queue it was meant to prevent.
Stationery is the cheapest part of the styling budget and the part most likely to cause a visible problem, because every piece of it has a job at a specific moment in a specific place.
The pieces, and what each is for
The welcome sign. Tells guests they are in the right place. Needs to be visible from where people arrive, which is often not where you would put it for a photograph.
The table plan. The single highest-traffic object of the day. Everyone reads it within the same ten minutes.
Table numbers or names. Read from standing height at the door, not from the seat.
Place cards. Only if you are assigning seats as well as tables, which is a separate decision worth making early because it changes the dressing time.
Orders of service or ceremony cards. Handed out or laid, and someone has to do it.
Menus. Per head, and frequently duplicated by the venue's own printing.
Where the table plan goes
The mistake is putting it in the doorway between the ceremony and the reception, which is exactly where the crowd already is. It wants to be in the space guests move into, with room for six people to stand in front of it and others to pass.
Two practical points. It needs light on it, which in a November evening means checking there is any. And it needs an easel or a frame that will not fall over when somebody leans in, which is what happens.
Ask the venue where previous couples have put theirs. They know.
Format and reality
Anything freestanding needs a weighted base or an easel, and outdoor signage needs to survive Midlands weather, which means acrylic or board rather than paper, and a base that will not blow over.
Anything hung needs a fixing the venue permits, which is usually nothing at all on a painted wall. Check before you design a scheme around a hung sign. See venue restrictions.
Mirrors and acrylic photograph beautifully and are unreadable in direct light or against a busy background. Test at the venue if you can.
The alphabetical question
Table plans arranged alphabetically by guest surname are read faster than plans arranged by table. Plans arranged by table look better and take longer to use. If your priority is getting a hundred and twenty people seated without a bottleneck, alphabetical wins.
Late changes
Guest numbers move in the final fortnight, and place cards and table plans are the pieces that have to change with them. Agree with whoever is producing them what the final deadline is and what a late change costs.
Keep a few blank place cards and a pen that matches. Somebody always arrives who was not on the plan, and the fix takes thirty seconds if the materials exist.
Who lays it out
Place cards and menus are laid during dressing and add real time, because unlike napkins they cannot be done at speed. Assume an extra hour for a hundred and twenty covers, and make sure it belongs to someone. See setup and turnaround.
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