I Saw The Sign, Part I

Two signs were on my project list during pre-wedding week. One was for ceremony seating instructions, and the other was to sit next to the photo booth and guestbook and give our guests a few tips and little bit of encouragement. 

First up, the ceremony seating sign!

Last October, Miss Hippo on Weddingbee posted a sign that I thought was just about the greatest idea ever:

Source

It made perfect sense to me.  No "bride's side" or "groom's side," just a bunch of seats for our friends and family to choose from.  Get there early?  You get a better seat. 

Mama Goodlaff had an easel generously loaned to her by her workplace, and it just begged to be filled!  Quite frankly, I completely forgot about this project until the week before the wedding, when Mama Goodlaff asked me if I would be needing said easel.  My reply was something along the lines of "Yes, definitely," though on the inside, I was swearing like a sailor--another project added to the list.

I bought a piece of foam core poster board (like the kind that sixth graders use for their class presentations), then used a little bit of paint to make it look like a picture frame. There is no planet in this universe on which I can be considered an artist--that honor goes to Sister Goodlaff. Crafty I may be, but artistic, I am not.  So although I tried to be neat while painting my "frame," I gave up about ten seconds into that and went for the "artistically messy" look favored by talentless hacks everywhere. 

I was really hoping to make it look like a real picture frame, but I was tired and cranky, had a paintbrush in my hand, and just wanted to get it done.  I'm not proud of it--I pretty much half-assed this sign.

My first thought for the sign's text was to print out our message and glue it to the board, but when that looked hokey, I decided, against my better judgement, to paint it on there myself.  Free handing was out, but then I remembered one of the most frustrating properties of foam core board: if you press on it too hard, it dents really easily. 

This time, this ease of dent-ability really worked in my favor.  I printed out the message on regular paper, laid it on the board, and traced the outline of the letters with pencil.  It left neat little indentations that I followed with my paint brush (mostly), and in no time my sign was done.

Niki Ross Photography

I pushed that sign off to the side, and then it was on to the next one...

Did you have your guests stick to a side, or did you have open seating?