Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Oops: The Things I Didn't Think I'd Have to Worry About

When one abruptly about-faces and ponders a different strategy for a wedding reception, details start to creep out of the woodwork. With an appetizers-and-sweets reception, I did not need to worry about seating charts. Or placecards. Or centerpieces. Or menus.

Suddenly, all those things I pinned to pinterest with, "Well, we aren't doing ___, but wouldn't this be lovely if we did?" are things that are actually quite relevant. Do we want place cards? Do we want just to give people table numbers? What should the place cards look like? (Luckily, it looks like I can find quite respectable-looking place cards online at $4 for a pack of 60 - that's far better than I was expecting!)

Then, seating charts! My thought is to have people in "pairs" at tables, but a group that can mix well - i.e., two of the groomsmen who may not know each other well but who can strike up a conversation, two cousins, two family from one side, two from another? It's best to try to mix people, yes? Or is it better to separate the families out? I don't know these things!

And then, menu - I think it would be best to send the menu to people ahead of time so they can choose their menu option, and then perhaps just print a menu board and put that by the gift table, or at the entrance to the room. It seems silly to print menus for everyone if they already know what they'll be eating (although it does look quite nice folded into the napkin!).

In short, new and exciting diversions! What are your thoughts?

2 comments:

  1. Oh, seating charts. Our biggest problem yet. My boyfriend's parents aren't on speaking terms. To make matters worse, no one from his dad's side of the family is coming except for him – so where do we sit his dad?
    At first we thought that giving table numbers would be enough, so his mom and dad are on separate tables (although we still have the problem of where to seat him). But now, since we're having three long tables of 20ish people, I don't think that's an acceptable option, so we're looking at place cards. But place cards for our friends seems too bossy. So we're thinking of doing place cards but telling our friends ahead of time that they can seat wherever they want as long as they respect the table they're in, since they will more than likely have their own table.
    Like I said, our biggest problem yet. Ugh. I get annoyed just by thinking about it, I never thought this would be so complicated.

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    1. Well, one thing that comes to mind is to ask some friends that know his Dad to sit next to him and talk to him - or sit him near some people from YOUR family who he might not know.

      That is a conundrum re: the friends. I think your solution sounds admirable!

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