DIY Seating Chart

For months and months I was stumped on what to use as our seating chart and what would display where each guest is supposed to sit. I contemplated big intricate designs and printed up canvases which would be flaunted in fancy fonts. I thought that a giant salvaged door finished in a white wash with everyone's names scrolled in silver pen would look pretty fab. I even bought this really old and very cheap shutter to use as a display but my creativity got the best of me and I decided to use that bad boy elsewhere. Instead, I called up my neighbor Matt. You know, the one who helps make really cool things for me. Like these. Because I knew I wanted to have something homemade. And I gave him an idea of what I wanted. We actually went perusing for wood one day and came across these skids in a parking lot. They were being thrown out so we broke out the saw and took what we needed.

And after getting down in his garage-slash-workshop he created for me this stained, vintage looking structure that I just love. It was exactly what I was looking for and Matt left some nails in the wood to give it a worn look. He rounded the bottom egdes to give it a little flair too. I was so thrilled to see this all finished! It's exciting to see a vision come to life don't you think?  

I got right to crafting to spruce this up as a Seating Card Display. So in keeping with the vintage glam feel of our wedding, I picked up some more ivory lace (similar to the kind I used around these) from Fabricland. I measured strips of lace to sit width-wise across the structure. Six strips ended up fitting comfortably down the entire structure. Since the lace I picked is very delicate and not very sturdy I startched the lace to add some firmness. To do so, I simmered 1/2 a cup of cornstarch and two cups of water in a pot, stirring until the mixture got nice and smooth yet pastey and quite thick. I then drenched each strip in the mixture before wringing it out and scraping off the goop. Then I laid the strips on a towel, making sure they were nice and flat as they dried out overnight. By morning they had firmed up and were much easier to work with!

Once the strips firmed up I was ready to start glueing the strips on the structure. I used a glue gun but my goodness, these thing wreak havoc on your fingers. As fabulous as glue guns are for so many different projects, I hate how messy they get! The glue gets so stringy and sticky. Yuck.

Then you'll need some of these:

So you can do a little bit of this..

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But of course I wanted to spruce things up a tad. So I broke out my favourite stuff, sweet sweet Krylon.

And tranformed plain little clothespegs into fabulous gray-hued ones:

I wasn't sure if I actually liked the gray pegs better than the natural wood ones but having that pop of gray to coordinate with our colours is a really lovely touch. I think I will spray paint the next few packs of pegs too, now that I have tested the colour. I also made up a few mock cards to see how they would hang on the lace. And of course I used my Martha Stewart punch to pretty up the mini shipping labels. Gosh I love those things!

I think I likey! What do you think? Stay tuned for more pics of the structure with the completed cards and birdcage set up that will be used in the foyer of the mansion (our venue). There will be the small birdcage shown in the photo, then a larger sized one and a flower arrangement in a lace wrapped vase next to the Seating Chart. I will also use one of my chalkboard frames that will say "Find your seat." I have started to tackle the seating arrangements and my goodness that is one heck of a job! Hope everyone is having a truly fabulous and blessed week xo

{Update} The seating chart ended up being one of my most favourite wedding details and guests surely appreciated the work I put into the project. Here are some photos from our wedding photographer Amanda Wilcher, showing how the seating chart looked set up the day of our wedding, with all of the shipping name tags clipped to the lace. Enjoy!

The details above, and the set up below.