When people think of wedding stationery, the first thing they think of are the invitations. The next is probably the menus (always a memorable experience!) or the place cards and table names. With so many types of wedding stationery, there is a lot to think about for a bride or groom to be!
Often the biggest pieces of stationery are the easiest to forget. So, this month we’re giving some love to our trusty welcome boards, seating plans, and orders of the day. They guide guests from ceremony to dinner and then on to the dance floor. We’d be lost without signs!
What Wedding Signs do I need?
There are 3 types of wedding sign that you can use for your wedding. They look similar at a glance but are all special and deserving of a bespoke design. Let’s go over them one at a time.
Welcome Boards
The largest piece of stationery you’ll need for your big day is at least one welcome board. These ‘welcome’ guests to the church, venue, and reception. As the first piece of stationery your guests will see after your invitations, this is a fantastic opportunity to show off your stylish designs.
When some people or designers create their welcome boards and other larger pieces of wedding stationery, they just make a bigger version of their other designs and put the right words on it. We see this as a waste of potential and encourage our clients to use elements of their theme to create boards that really stand out. Even simple themes can look amazing when you have extra space to work with!
How big should Welcome Boards be?
Our welcome boards are usually A1, A2 or A3, but the size can vary depending on the venue. Some of the gorgeous locations you can use for your wedding run multiple events at the same time, so you need these signs to direct guests to the correct place for dinner and dancing.
As Idodesigns print all of our work in-house, we can sometimes be limited in the sizes they can print to. However, there are ways around this! For the larger boards, elements may be mounted on top of each to create an overall larger A1 size. We like to use the same materials throughout your wedding stationery suite to keep the continuity flowing, so any glitter or coloured card borders can be added, along with ribbons, buckles or embellishments.
Seating Plans
As magical as they are, wedding days can be very stressful. You’ll want to minimise this by having a clear seating plan for your dinner, meaning hungry guests can find their tables and seats easily.
Making seating plans large with clear font is essential, so they can be seen from a distance and over shoulders if there’s a queue at the entrance. But, of course, they can be more than just practical!
Just like our menus and orders of service, these are pieces of stationery your guests will spend a lot of time looking at, which means they deserve to look great! Blank card is nowhere near as memorable as a seating plan surrounded by flowers, ribbons, and other accessories.
How to display Seating Plans?
Seating plans should be on show at the entrance to the dining area, similar to how your welcome boards are displayed. If the space in the venue is tight, you can create smaller versions that you can place elsewhere or use them by hand to direct guests to their tables.
They should also be as clear as possible, listing the tables by name with guests’ names underneath works great.
Order of the Day Boards
These designs are optional, but we always recommend at least one or two. Order of the day boards tell your guests what will happen and when, meaning the day is a lot more organised. It’s rare that the times stay accurate all day as travelling from church to venue can be tricky, and you don’t want to rush your guests, so a clear order of what to expect can keep things running nice and smoothly.
How to design Order of the Day Boards?
For the design, once again you can do as much or as little as you want with order of the day boards. As they are static designs, and aren’t being put in pockets or carried around, you can be bolder with your accessory choices. Unless of course you do wish to have individual Order of the Day cards – we can create those too! If you place yours alongside your flowers, have a few attached to the design or coloured ribbon that complements them.
However, keep any accessories to the edges of the design as the wording is the most important part, and needs to be as big as possible so it can be read by even the most short-sighted guests.
Once again, they aren’t essential if your stationery budget is tight, but they are always a sight to behold if you do create some. If you don’t decide to, make sure the info is sent out to your guests via your invitations or in other ways.
More about Wedding Signage
The biggest and most beautiful pieces of stationery should never be an afterthought. Whatever your theme, we can help you create gorgeous wedding signage using our bespoke design system or you can choose an existing design from our galleries.
To find out more about what we do, please check out or blog for more advice on all things wedding stationery. You can also get in touch with any questions you have.
We look forward to hearing from you!