Your Top 10 Essential On-The-Day Wedding Stationery Items
Planning a wedding is an intricate dance of logistics and creativity. Among the details that make up the big day, wedding stationery often plays a crucial role in tying everything together seamlessly. From guiding guests to capturing memories, the right stationery items can elevate your celebration from ordinary to extraordinary.
Here are my 10 essential on-the-day wedding stationery items for an effortless celebration.
Photo by: https://jodiedcmitchell.co.uk
1) A Seating Plan
A seating plan helps your guests find their tables effortlessly and prevents them wondering around for ages trying to find their seats when everyone just wants to eat. Even if you’re not having a sit down wedding breakfast and are having more of a relaxed, laid back affair with a buffet or sharing platters, I always recommend having a pre-determined seating plan, not only does it speed things up in getting people seated, it is particularly helpful if you have a lot of guests that have dietary requirements or allergies so that your caters and waiting staff know where these guests will be sitting and mix-ups and mistakes can be much more easily avoided.
If you have 100 guests or over, I recommend arranging your seating plan in alphabetical order for ease of navigation, it makes it much quicker for your guests to find their name and corresponding table when they know where to look.
2) Place Name Cards
Seating plans should always come with place cards. They ensure smooth seating arrangements, clearly indicating each guest's assigned seat. Place name cards can come in all sorts of forms and can be see as personalised mini favours your guests can take home with them. Whether you choose the simple folded place cards most of my Wedding Invitation Collections have available, or something more opulent such as place name cards finished with beautiful silk ribbon or handmade wax seals, they add a special finishing touch to your wedding table decor. You could also choose to combine your place cards with your menus, helping you to save money while making sure each guest has a menu specific to their chosen meal.
3) Table Numbers or Names
Table numbers or names are another essential wedding day stationery item to help guests to locate their assigned tables efficiently. Paired with seating plans and place name cards, you can match your table numbers or names with your wedding invitation design so they complement your overall theme and decor for a cohesive look.
Why not get creative and swap out table numbers for table names and use a category that’s personal to you and your love story, whether that’s places you’ve visited together, your favourite songs, movies or TV shows or anything else you can think of, the more creative the better and they make a great talking point for your guests!
4) Menu Cards
One essential wedding stationery item to have on your big day, especially if your having a sit down meal are menu cards. Not only can you give your guests a preview of the culinary delights that await them and tantalise their taste buds with details about each course, but you can let them know about the wine or drink choices on offer too.
You can either have a couple of menu cards per table to have in the centre or you can give one to each guest. You could even personalise each menu to your guest, either by including their chosen food choices on the card or by combining them with place cards and having your guests name on them too. Personalised menus also make another great little keepsake of the day!
5) Order Of Service Programmes
If you’re having a religious ceremony then order of service programmes are a real must-have on-the-day wedding stationery item. They are there to walk your guests through the whole service as well as providing the words to the readings and hymns you have during your ceremony. Programmes are available with 4, 8 or 12 pages and the amount of pages you will need is dependent on the length of your wedding ceremony and how many readings and hymns you have.
Although, you don’t need to be having a religious ceremony to have order of service programmes! A lot of my couples opt for a 4 page booklet which includes a cover, the names of the wedding party, a run down of the ceremony order, any special acknowledgments and thanks you might want to include, plus an illustrated order of the day on the back, making them the perfect little keepsake of your wedding day!
6) A Welcome Board
Make a memorable first impression with a welcoming board that greets guests as they arrive at your wedding. All the welcome signs available in my Wedding Invitation Collections also include an illustrated order of the day timeline, which is personalised to you and your wedding day. These are a great way to let your guests know what’s going on when during the day, preventing them from asking you so you can concentrate on relaxing and celebrating!
7) Small Signage
Other signage you might want to consider ordering is small signage for things such as for signing the guest book and where to put cards and gifts, along with bar menus or a signature cocktail menu if you need one. Another piece of signage you should really have is a menu for your cake so your guests know the flavours of each tier and if any of them are made for any dietary requirements. You can also use signage to help guide guests throughout your venue, from directing them to the ceremony location or pointing out amenities like toilets and the bar. Helpful signage ensures that everyone knows where to go and what to do!
8) A Guest Book
A cherished keepsake of your special day, capture heartfelt messages and well wishes from your loved ones with a beautiful guest book. A guest book is also great if you are having a photo-booth or polaroid camera so your guests can stick their photos inside too! All my Wedding Invitation Collections have co-ordinating, personalised guest books available to order.
9) Reserved Signs or Tags
Ensure that important guests have prominent seating during the ceremony by designating reserved seating for immediate family members and the bridal party using reserved seat signs or chair tags. We can either create personalised A5 cards to lay on the seats or swing tags finished with silk ribbon to hang on the chairs.
10) Vow Books
An on-the-day wedding essential I feel everyone forgets! The last thing you want to do is read your heart-felt vows during your wedding ceremony from your phone or a sheet of A4 paper! Not only will it ruin the carefully curated aesthetic of your wedding and not look great in your ceremony photos, but you can’t keepsake them like you can a beautifully printed Vow Book. Have your vows printed in a beautiful book that co-ordinates with all your other wedding stationery for a beautiful finish to your wedding ceremony. You can even frame them afterwards to hang in your home as another beautiful momentum of your special day.
One more thing… Thank You Cards
Not one of your essential on the day wedding stationery items, but extremely important for after your wedding day and something you don’t want to forget about. Make sure to express your gratitude to your guests for sharing in your special day and for any gifts or money they might have given you with personalised thank you cards. All my Wedding Invitation Collections have matching thank you cards available, all of which can incorporate a photograph from your wedding day. There are 3 designs available including mini A6 double sided cards, square double sided cards or folded thank you cards, so there’s something for every budget and style preference. I recommend sending thank you cards out about 6-8 weeks after your wedding day.
Now you know the essential on-the-day wedding stationery, what’s next?
On-the-day stationery plays a vital role in creating a cohesive and unforgettable experience for you and your guests and by incorporating these 10 essential on-the-day wedding stationery items into your celebration, it will not only enhance the aesthetic appeal of your wedding day, but also help streamline the logistics for a truly seamless and memorable day.
See all the on-the-day stationery I have available to order on my Price List here, and don’t forget to book into my design diary at least 2 months before your wedding day to give us plenty of time to get everything designed, printed and delivered to you or your event in time for your big day.
So, what are you waiting for? Get in touch today to discuss your on-the-day wedding stationery!
