Wedding table names: ideas by theme and how to use them

Wedding table name ideas by theme

Each theme has 11 or 12 names, enough for about 120 guests at tables of ten. If one runs short, combine two (coastal towns and lakes, films and songs) or swap in names from your own story.

Table numbers or table names

Numbers are the default at most venues because guests find them quickly and the caterer already works with them. Names take more effort, but they say something about you and stop Table 1 looking more important than Table 14.

Many couples use both: the name in large type with a small number underneath. Guests find their way by name and staff serve by number, which avoids mix-ups with the special meals.

Choose a theme that tells your story

The themes guests remember come from the two of you. People enjoy spotting a reference they recognise, and a name with a story behind it gives the table something to talk about before the starters arrive. Good places to look:

• Where you met and where you have lived: streets in the neighbourhood, stations on your old commute, the villages you each grew up in.
• Trips you have taken together, one city or island per table in the order you visited them, with the year underneath.
• Hobbies: hills you have climbed, gigs you have been to, board games, races you have run, gins you have tasted.
• Your work or studies, if outsiders can read the names: elements for two chemists, typefaces for designers.
• The venue and the season: flowers in bloom that month, or the villages around a country house venue.

If you each have a favourite, split the tables: half named after one partner’s films, half after the other’s books. Leave out in-jokes that only a handful of people understand, because a name that needs explaining at every table stops being funny by the third.

Personal touches for each table

A table name sticks when it comes with something to look at or read:

• A framed photo of the two of you in the place the table is named after.
• If you number the tables too, a photo of each of you at the age that matches the number.
• A two-line note on the back of the sign: “Whitstable. Oysters in the rain on our first weekend away, 2019.”
• A link with the guests: university friends at the table named after the city where you studied.

Keep notes short. Guests read them in the few minutes before they sit down, while they say hello to the rest of the table.

Practical rules for table names

• Short and legible. One to three words, printed large enough to read from four or five metres between people standing up. “Padstow” works; “Padstow, where we ate chips on the harbour wall” is too long.
• Easy to say. Guests tell each other where they are sitting, and older relatives will ask the waiting staff. A name nobody can pronounce slows everyone down.
• No ranking. With numbers, avoid giving Table 1 to your closest family and Table 18 to colleagues at the back. With names, avoid themes that have an order, such as medals, chart positions or vintages.
• Nothing that could hurt or embarrass. Read each name next to the guests who will sit there. A break-up song, an ex’s home town or a rival football club can cause a moment you did not intend.
• One style. Same font, size and layout on every sign, so guests spot them from a distance.
• Surnames for people. For writers, artists or musicians, the surname alone (Austen, Hockney, Bowie) reads better than a full name.

How to show table names on the day

When guests reach the reception they need to know which table is theirs and where it is. Most weddings combine two or three of the following.

• A seating board. The table plan (UK) or seating chart (US) at the entrance to the dining room, often on an easel, a mirror or an old door. List guests alphabetically by surname with their table name, or by table for fewer than about 80 guests, and add a small floor plan.
• Escort cards. One card per guest or couple with their name and table, laid out alphabetically by the entrance. They are the usual choice in the US, while UK weddings more often use a board.
• Table signs. Tall enough to be seen above the centrepiece, and printed on both sides for tables in the middle of the room.
• Place cards. A name at each seat, needed only if you assign seats as well as tables. Add the table name in small type so staff can return a card that gets moved.

Send the final plan to the venue coordinator and the caterer at least a week ahead, with the table names, the numbers if they use them and the special meals at each table.

The free seating chart templates include printable layouts for the board and an Excel guest list template where you can note each guest’s table.

How to choose and make your table names

1. 1

   Count your tables

   The table calculator gives you the number from your guest count and table size. Prepare one or two spare names.

2. 2

   Draft more names than tables

   Write down 20 or so candidates from your theme and cut the long, hard to spell or ambiguous ones.

3. 3

   Group your guests into tables

   Decide who sits together first. The free seating chart generator splits a pasted guest list into tables while keeping groups together.

4. 4

   Match names to tables

   Name each table once you know who sits there, so the name can suit its guests.

5. 5

   Proofread and test

   Check every spelling, print one sign at full size and read it from five metres away.

6. 6

   Print and pack by table

   Put each table’s sign, place cards and photo in an envelope labelled with its name, and hand the envelopes and the floor plan to whoever sets up the room.