XP - Seating Chart Poster vs. Place Cards

jewely24

I'm having an outdoor wedding and have about 130 people invited, so I'm definitely assigning tables, but I keep going back and forth on how to do it.  So, I'm looking to get some pros and cons on having a seating chart poster or individual place cards from people who have done either.  I like the poster idea, because I'm afraid that place cards might blow away if there's even the slightest bit of wind.  But on the other hand, I envision a traffic jam around the poster at cocktail hour with everyone and their brother looking for their table assignment at the same time.

So, how did you do it??

emilyb213

I took two wooden dowel rods, drilled holes in them, spray painted them, and strung ribbons through each dowel (using the second dowel as weight on the bottom to keep the whole thing from spinning/blowing around). I had 22 tables' worth of guests, so I drilled 11 holes for 11 pieces of ribbon, leaving 3 inches of clearance on each end so I could hang it. Then, I typed up everyone's names and the table numbers and printed them on cardstock, and used a fancy hole puncher to punch them out. I also punched out blank cardstock to use as backing for the names, and used double-sided tape to secure them to the ribbons threaded through the dowel rods (I sandwiched the ribbon between the two pieces of cardstock, with the names on the front, and the blank piece on the back). I fancied it up with some little scrapbook flower decorations, and tied a piece of ribbon to each end of the top dowel rod to make a hanger. It was hung off of one of the support bars of the tent where we had our guestbook and card/gift table. It took me a few solid hours of work to put it together, but it was worth it because I knew it wouldn't blow away. I'm probably doing a crap job of explaining how I made it, so here's a picture:

Edit: I had a buffet dinner, so I didn't need placecards that people could take with them with their meal choices. 

jewely24

I like that, something like that may work.  Thank you!!

MayDay513

I did escort cards, and I wish I did a seating chart. I also had a buffet dinner.

[Deleted User]

My manager did multiple frames and put the list of names in the frames and stood the frames up across a table. Each frame covered so many letters. She splurged and got frames she liked and then re-used the frames to hang wedding pictures at home afterwards. You can also go with cheap frames & paint them your wedding color. This way you wouldn't have to worry about the wind (or if the wind did blow a frame over, easy to pick back up) and with multiple frames you wouldn't have a traffic jam at one board (plus if you need to make any last minute changes, easier to change one sheet compared to a whole board)