Make Your Own Wedding Table Plan!
Table plans are fun to make - and it's easy to create a stunning design from scratch. We'll show you how!
Wedding table plans come in all shapes and sizes. You don't have to have one at all, but if you like making things then the table plan is a blank canvas - literally - for all your creativity!
Browse wedding magazines and the internet for ideas, and take inspiration from your wedding flowers, table stationery, the colours in your venue, your wedding invitation designs - jot down ideas and let your imagination come up with something really special.
Make Your Own Wedding Table Plan: Where To Start!
Go along to your nearest art shop. Most towns have a little aladdin's cave tucked away somewhere, full of art supplies and craft things.... if you're near Manchester, Fred Aldous is a fabulous find, but if not then check Yell for anywhere selling artists' supplies.
For the background to your table plan, use either mountboard and foamboard (stuck together... I'll explain later), or buy canvas which is available pre-stretched and stapled onto a wood frame. Both should be available from any art shop. Canvas is only usually available in white, but mountboard comes in about 20 colours - I use white and ivory for most of my designs but pastel pink is a nice alternative, or any pastel colour.
You'll need some thin card to print your guests' names on: check what you're buying is ok to go through your printer. Most cards are suitable for inkjet printing, but avoid glossy card, anything with glitter in the surface, and if you're buying pearlescent card just check... this is usually ok but some pearlescent finishes aren't suitable for printing.
The fun part is your embellishments... designs work best when they're simple and eye-catching, so a scattering of little butterfly embellishments works really well, or you can use paper flowers or ribbons next to each table. Think about what you'd like to use to fit your theme before you start shopping. This is the only safe way to avoid spending a fortune on too many sparkly things!
The best places to buy embellishments are:
For butterflies try Hobbycraft - they sell packs of glittery butterflies for under £10, and these are available in various colours (white, silver, gold, purple, pink and red, off the top of my head). They don't look great in the packet, but they'll really transform a table plan.
For ribbons you can either buy online (for the best choice go to Jaycotts), or again try Hobbycraft, or a local haberdashery shop - market stalls can be great little finds so it's always worth having a quick look around your local market for ribbons. For a table plan you shouldn't need more than a couple of metres - 5 metres will be plenty just in case you get in a tangle.
Last but by no means least are diamantes. Shop at www.beadsandcrystals.co.uk for genuine swarovski crystals. The difference between 'diamantes' and genuine swarovski? Plastic ones don't sparkle; real ones do - and they look fantastic when they catch the light.
For sticking on card, the crystals you should buy are the non hot fix, flat back swarovski crystals. 4mm is a nice size (they call it ss16): smaller crystals are fiddly, much larger ones give a more striking effect but they can look clunky. I wouldn't use anything bigger than 6mm diameter.
Step By Step Guide: Make a Wedding Table Plan
1. Small pieces of card are tricky to print on. So print your guests' names on A4 sheets - perhaps two tables per page - and cut them out.
2. To cut your tables so they're all the same size and shape, cut a rectangle / circle from tracing paper or baking parchment. Put this over your printed tables making sure everything looks centred, draw round it then cut out.
3. Cut slightly larger shapes from a different colour card to back each of your tables. Allow about 5mm to show behind each printed table. Glue them together with spray glue - display mount, or use double sided tape.
4. Position your tables roughly on the board you're using for your plan - just to work out how they'll look. Try and get a symmetrical arrangement. Don't glue anything yet.
5. Measure an equal gap between each table - and use a pencil to mark where each table will go, exactly.
6. Glue the tables onto the mountboard with display mount (or double sided tape). If you're using display mount, spray it outside! (read the warnings on the can of course, but the real reason to spray it outside is that it gets everywhere).
7. Arrange your embellishments - butterflies, flowers, hearts etc. Whatever you've chosen to stick on your plan, there are two basic ways of arranging things:
Scattered, in little groups of three around the plan - this is less formal and more eye-catching. Little groups of glittery butterflies particularly look lovely.
Formally, with one embellishment per table, always in the same place
After adding your main embellishments, you can play with diamantes. Play around with your diamantes first, positioning them without using any glue, to see what looks best. I like to use one or two per table, or perhaps arrange them in little swirls (S-shapes) near your embellishments.
The only problem with this is it sometimes looks like sparkly butterfly poo.... or perhaps that's just me!
Do most people have first- and surnames? Should I use titles? What about the top table?
I've worked on hundreds of table plans, and my experience tells me that around two thirds of couples use first- and surnames.
A third go for first names only, and this is usually for smaller weddings (50 or fewer guests), and where there aren't five people called Dave.
Some couples have first names but to avoid confusion add initials where necessary, e.g. Dave A, Dave B, Dave X. Perhaps one couple in ten will use full titles e.g. Mr John Smith - this is usually for larger, more formal weddings.
Sometimes it's nice to use titles for the top table. If your Gran would like to see herself as "Grandmother of the Bride" on the table plan, then go for it! If you'd rather use names, you can always have titles just on your place cards.
Should I have table names, or table numbers?
This is entirely up to you. It's popular to have a theme running through a wedding these days, and I hope to add some theme ideas to this site very soon.
If your wedding theme is black and white, for example, you could name your tables after black and white things: Penguins, Newspapers, Liquorice Allsorts, Newcastle United, etc!
If you don't have a theme, you can still have names for your tables.
- Popular choices are -
- places you've visited as a couple
- types of roses or flowers
- capital cities
- shades of your main wedding colour (easiest with blue - azure, cornflower... - and pink; tricky with black and white!)
- British castles or stately homes
- "Love" in different languages
Ideas for Wedding Table Names
Many brides name their wedding tables as an alternative to numbering tables. It's a nice way to break the ice for your guests, and will save you worrying that Aunty Brenda will be offended if she's on table 12 rather than table 3!
Choosing wedding table names can be a bit tricky though - if you have a theme for your wedding reception it's easier, but if not, where should you start?
Our ideas for wedding table names are here to help!
Famous Couples - Posh & Becks, Cinderella & Prince Charming, Romeo & Juliet, Anthony & Cleopatra, Richard & Judy, Laurel & Hardy, Abbott & Costello, Tom & Jerry, Bonnie & Clyde, Cagney & Lacey, Morse & Lewis, Samson & Delilah, Mickey & Minnie, Pinky & Perky, Bill & Ben, Salt n Pepa, Belle & Sebastian
Romantic Locations - pubs, clubs, concerts, cities you've visited together. Honeymoon destinations, famous romantic cities (Paris, Milan, Venice, Florence... in fact most of Italy would fit!). Romantic film locations: Notting Hill, Verona, Casablanca...
Local landmarks - villages, rivers, mountains, streets, pubs, churches, landmarks near your wedding venue.
Romantic movies - Gone with the Wind, When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Grease, Lady & The Tramp, Sliding Doors, Notting Hill, My Best Friend's Wedding, Ghost, Titanic, Father of the Bride, Beauty & The Beast, The Princess Bride, An Officer and a Gentleman, Chocolat, Roman Holiday, Shrek, Moulin Rouge, Jules et Jim, One Fine Day, Brokeback Mountain, My Fair Lady, Pretty Woman, West Side Story, Sense & Sensibility
Sports - football teams, football players, golf courses, sporting venues (Wimbledon, Wembley, Yankee stadium, Old Trafford, Lords, The Maracana, Silverstone, Aintree, Ascot)...
Flowers - rose varieties, seasonal flowers (e.g. spring flowers for an April wedding), flowers in your favourite colour (e.g. forget me not, cornflower), wildflowers (bluebell, buttercup, daisy, foxglove, cowslip, campion, iris, chicory, violet, primrose, harebell, meadowsweet), native British flowers, tropical flowers
Sweets - retro sweets or modern favourites: chewits, rhubarb & custard, cola cubes, white mice, teeth, fried eggs, jelly babies, bon bons, sherbet lemons, sherbet strawberries, sour apples, aniseed balls, liquorice allsorts, wine gums, fruit pastilles, fruit salad, blackjacks, humbugs, murray mints
Bands or songs - love songs, or just your favourite bands, albums or songs. If you are regular concert goers, then you could have favourite venues or festival sites. If you like theatre, then favourite plays, directors or stage actors
Gemstones - emerald, amethyst, sapphire, diamond, ruby, amber, turquoise, jasper, jet, pearl, opal, topaz
Seasonal table names - snowflake, icicle, frost, snowglobe, bauble, rudolph, pudding, new year, snowman, santa, snowdrop .... or .... sunglasses, flip flops, daisies, sandcastles, starfish, ice cream, sunset, holidays
I will always remember a table plan I made for a couple in 2007. They'd compromised on table names, and the bride had chosen half, and the groom the other half. The theme was "Fast Cars, Loose Women" and the groom named tables after Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin etc. while the bride's were Carol McGiffin, Coleen Nolan, Denise Welch...
TOP TABLE SEATING ETIQUETTE (TRADITIONAL)
From the left, the top table is usually seated in this order:
Best Man; Mother of the Groom; Father of the Bride; Bride; Groom; Mother of the Bride; Father of the Groom; Chief Bridesmaid
Of course nowadays you can ask whoever you like to share your top table with you. This is intended only as a suggestion / glimpse of history. We're not sticklers for etiquette really!
The basic rule of thumb if you want to follow traditional wedding etiquette is to alternate (boy - girl - boy - girl), with parents either side of the bride and groom, and bridesmaids and best men at the ends of the table.
For a recent wedding table plan I worked on, the bride and groom sat with their best man and bridesmaids at the top table, with the various parents each sitting at the head of one of the other tables. This was a lovely idea, and I can see it being a great solution if any of your parents don't get along.
I've also made a table plan for a smaller wedding where the bride and groom put themselves on all four tables - effectively they had empty seats with their names on so they could spend time with all of their guests.
