DIY Table Number Holders

Head Table

Standard Table

Why pay up the wazoo for such a simple, insignificant wedding item such as the table number holder? Seriously, it just holds a piece of paper (typically) that tells people where to sit down for a while…I was not about to drop a bunch of cash on this.

A friend of mine had just recently gotten married and purchased an insane amount of wine corks from Craig’s list (at a low price) to use in her centerpieces. She generously told me that I could use them for my wedding once her wedding had passed. I had seen ideas on Pinterest where people cut wine corks in half, cut an additional slit on the top and slip the number sign right in. This was my initial plan, until we realized that they probably wouldn’t be very sturdy and we didn’t feel like slicing up 40 table’s worth…

Instead, we used a hot glue gun to make a little tower without slicing a cork. Three went on the bottom, two on the top and the number sign slipped right in. Some corks had some really intricate designs, some were fairly plain or had a tear in it, others had a rich red stain from the wine it once held in. Since my centerpieces were very simple, I thought that the character of the corks gave the tables a little something extra – without the extra cost.

*Bonus savings – If you are a wine drinker (or know people who are) you can gather up corks to use for this project without purchasing any if you start collecting soon enough!

Cork Towers Close Up

The possibilities of what you could create yourself are endless. Don’t limit yourself to what you can find in the store! If you aren’t very crafty, ask family members or friends who are if they can help. Know someone who just got married? Ask if you can borrow their table number holders, more than likely they would love for someone else to get use out of them – I know I would be happy to borrow these out.  If you find something that works for you, go ahead and put the money you save towards something else that is more important to you!

Ditch the Place Cards – But Have a Seating Chart

Lately, it has been trendy to have guests “pick a seat, not a side” – essentially, not have a seating chart. I get it, if you have a big guest list it can be time consuming to figure out who should sit where. However, the odds of a large group of people perfectly filling the amount of tables you have are slim. There would likely be empty seats at several tables, and you would need to have more tables prepared to accommodate this (more money spent on table settings & decorations). Additionally, do you really want  your drunk college friends up front and Grandma stuck in the back? Or your uncles that fight every time they see each other sitting close? Taking the time to create a seating chart will ensure everyone has a place to sit and that your family or guests of honor can be closer to the head table. Don’t stress about the chart too much though, they are just sitting there for dinner – not glued to their seats the entire night!

I have a decent sized family so when it came to the seating chart, the last thing I wanted to do was print out 280 individual place cards…For one thing, printing those throw away place cards can be expensive. Secondly, I could not bare to ask someone to alphabetize them a couple of hours before those 280 people walked in – I know you can alphabetize them ahead of time, but I know they can get mixed up, names can get lost, etc.

A few family members started creating a seating chart “poster” instead of the traditional place cards. I found this frame for free at a garage sale and just bought a can of spray paint to clean it up a bit. Sure, it had seen better days but I thought it had character. My sister in law created the alphabetized chart and had it printed for fairly cheep at Office Max and BAM, we had an inexpensive but tasteful way to inform our guests where they were sitting.