Wedding Wednesday: 13 Must Have Wedding Signs

One thing I did not anticipate having to plan for was all the signs that go along with a wedding. I knew there would be flower choices, and colors, and clothing, and seating arrangements, but signs? Who knew?? Again, I think a lot of this is a Pinterest creation, and back in the PPW days (pre-Pinterest wedding) there was probably just one sign letting you know you were in the right place for the wedding. Our wedding venue let me know they provide three easels for signs, and that got me thinking...what kinds of signs do we need exactly?? I found lots of lists for "cute signs you'll wish you'd had at your wedding" and whatnot, but I really just wanted a list that said: bare minimum of signs you need at your wedding. What I came up with is somewhere in between. Obviously a lot of these signs won't be relevant to every wedding, and if you wanted the absolute bare minimum you would probably just need a welcome sign at the ceremony and another one at the reception. 

welcome // unplugged // here comes... // schedule // choose a seat

1) A welcome sign is kind of a must, just to let people know they're in the right spot. 

2) After seeing lots of wedding photos of guests hiding behind their phones and cameras because everyone wants to capture that moment the bride walks down the aisle, I decided I don't want phones/cameras out during the ceremony. I want to see my friends and families faces, not their phones, both on my actual walk down the aisle, and later in the pictures taken by people charging us lots of money to get those professional shots, so we'll most likely have some kind of sign kindly asking everyone to leave their phones in their purse/pocket till the reception. 

3) I wanted to find some way for both Ez and Declan to be involved in the ceremony. Ez is going to be ring bearer, and Declan will carry a here comes the bride sign, which I plan to make for him. I'm kinda sad I can't be on the other side of the aisle to see them walk up. In my head it's adorable, in reality it will probably be chaos ;)

4) A large schedule could take the place of programs. I'm still not convinced programs or a schedule are even necessary though, so we'll see if this one makes the final cut. Maybe if your wedding was doing some out of the ordinary things it would make more sense, but ours is following a pretty cut and dry wedding agenda. 

5) I liked this please choose a seat sign because I wasn't sure whether or not we'd have ushers. My mom so kindly volunteered my brothers as ushers though, so this may or may not be necessary. Either way I do like the message it sends that we're all one big giant family now.

guest book // hashtag // candy buffet // photo booth // reception // menu // seating chart // thank you

1) I think just having a guest book lying on a table next to a pen is probably pretty self explanatory, but I found a ton of cute sign our guest book signs, so maybe not? 

2) Hashtags are definitely a newer wedding invention. I don't even know if the majority of our guests have Instagram, but I like the idea of having our own special wedding hashtag, so this sign makes the cut.

3) Instead of stuffing a bunch of candy in bags as our favors, we are having a candy buffet (aka - the guests get to do the work choose their own candy) and I liked this sign to put on the candy table.

4) We are also having a photo booth, so this goes on my list of must-have signs. This is actually one of the things I'm most excited about because we get copies of all the photos so that'll be a fun way to relive our big day post-wedding. 

5) The reception is this way sign is pretty self-explanatory but necessary. 

6) A menu sign makes more sense if the guests will be choosing from several options. We went the buffet route though, so this is a no go for us.

7) Seating arrangements - probably the biggest headache of wedding planning. Our venue is super strict on how many people must be at each table, so it gets very precise and tricky. That's why I assigned it to my mom ;) I like this giant print out poster of the seating arrangements, but in reality we will probably just do seating cards because it's easier to change those around at last minute if necessary. 

8) A heartfelt thank you sign is not necessary but I think it's a really nice touch. Joe and I are so grateful and thankful to everyone that is making the time and spending the money to travel out here for us. We've got people coming from literally all over... Germany, Africa, the east coast, southern California. Almost nobody at our wedding actually lives in the bay area so it's a really big deal that they are making our wedding a priority and celebrating our big day with us. It wouldn't be the same without you guys!

So there you have it! My bare minimum wedding signs list, minus a few of these. Of course, if you love visiting the print shop and planning and want to go all out or you're a DIY ninja you could increase the amount of cute and clever signs at your wedding to dozens, or even hundreds. The options are limitless.