@rebeccar: It sounds like a wonderful day and I’m delighted you enjoyed it! And now you know what I wish every bride knew – at the end of the day, as long as it’s pretty and people enjoy themselves, certain details just don’t matter.
Table assignments were mentioned on another thread
How did you guys display the assignments? A month to go - most of theRSVPs are in - a few stragglers. D is working on the plan, but we are still thinking about how to display. Anyone use one of the online templates that you can take to kinkos and have printed on foam board? Any recommendations? Or cute/ simple ideas?
I had a rented decorative door with a corkboard. On the corkboard I pinned up yellow paper trimmed with blue with the seating assignments. I also had place cards at each plate. People like knowing where they are supposed to sit. It’s better than wandering around trying to find a place to sit with the family.
D1 bought small vases online for $1 each. She filled each vase with a flower stem and greenery, then put guest’s name card on it. Those vases looked added a lot of color to the table. She used a service online to print name cards and menus.
At a recent wedding reception we attended, the hosts had greeters ushering the guests to their seats as the guests arrived.
D used someone on Etsy to do a seating chart. That was blown up at a Kinko’s, and the venue put it on an easel just outside the entrance to the ballroom. Each person had their number next to their name, and then each table had a number card (D ordered on Etsy) - it was big enough for elderly people to see. 
@rebeccar , I am glad to hear that after all of the worries, the day was wonderful. My D’s wedding had “regular” music and Arabic music, but the DJ mixed it all together - a little of this, a little of that - which was great. It’s so nice to be able to integrate various customs into a wedding. (But D did NOT integrate the dollar dance custom some of my family has had in their weddings … ).
Call me crazy! I collected 150 small cordial/wine/pretty glass glasses. None were more than 4 inches high. All were stemware. Some were etched. Some were cut glass. Some were pretty shapes.
I used a wine marker and wrote each guest’s name and table number on the glasses. If a couple, I used the same glass. I tried to have a variety of different glasses on each table.
We thought they looked really pretty, and added to the table decor. Most of the guests took the glasses with them which was what we hoped would happen.
They were put out on a large library type of table in the venue foyer.
DD didn’t want picture frames or just cards which also work just fine.
^^^Cute idea.
And I love it that the guests hauled away the glasses! 
What a clever idea, @thumper1 ! A good way to assign places and do wedding favors at the same time!
Love that, @thumper1. They must have looked great on the library table and added interest to the dinner table.
We used printed place cards, alphabetized on several florist executed 2" high foam boards covered in moss, with a variety of small succulents. The cards were held in place by low hidden pins with the equivalent of a paper clip on top.
In our case, we bought all of the pictures from the photographer. We did order an album for the couple.
But here is my good buy of the day but it goes here!
I was at CVS making prints today and noticed they were having a special in 8 x 10 20 page albums. Up to 100 pictures.
I used a few more, but my album was under $20!
I didn’t rearrange the pics at all, but if I had, it would have been even nicer!
We will be making one for each of the grandparents!
Bride is making one for the in laws!
Wayyyy less costly than Shutterfly!!
I loved reading all the recent wedding reports. Congratulations!
@rebeccar, thanks for the reminder that the little details don’t matter all that much. I’ll try to remember that as we get deeper into planning my D’s wedding.
@rebeccar - your wedding sounds lovely and most importantly, like you and your DH were able to enjoy yourselves. and even appreciate the moments. That is what lingers long after the tiny (to all but those who planned it) details fade. Great to include music and traditions from your groom’s culture. Our daughter’s wedding was bi-cultural, with some aspects of their western style ceremony and reception unfamiliar to the groom’s family and some aspects unfamiliar to the bride’s family. It seemed to enhance the uniqueness of the day and create a lot of enthusiasm among all the guests, many of whom joined into unfamiliar dances and customs with abandon.
Thanks for the detailed report and enjoy the absence of wedding stress. I know that being able to drop the focus on so many cumulative tiny decisions was a huge joy for our daughter.
An amazing number of the seating charts available on Etsy have people listed by table. Table 1 and then a bunch of names, Table 2 and a bunch of names, etc.
This makes no sense. What you want is a seating chart that’s alphabetical by last name, with each person’s table assignment listed next to their name, so people can find their names quickly.
For my daughter’s low-key wedding (with fewer than 50 guests), I just typed up an alphabetical list of names and table assignments in a fairly large font on multiple pieces of paper and glued it to a foam board. The venue provided an easel. It was not particularly attractive, but it worked. (I was the one who got stuck with this chore because I live within driving distance of the venue, but the bride and groom were flying in from 2000 miles away.)
“This makes no sense. What you want is a seating chart that’s alphabetical by last name, with each person’s table assignment listed next to their name, so people can find their names quickly.”
Excel, folks, Excel! It is easier to assign tables first: table one has grandma Millie, Uncle Sam, etc. And so on. Enter the names into the spreadsheet in any random order. The program allows to sort the data alphabetically or numerically by selecting a column and using the sorting function. Easy peasy.
@BunsenBurner : Spoken like a true geek. (The same thought occurred to me about Excel.)
My D used Excel … the apple did not fall far from the tree!
Well, yes, of course Excel.
But what I meant was that the large seating chart you display at the reception should have the names in alphabetical order, not table order, so that people can find their names quickly and move away from the chart, rather than taking a long time to find their names and holding up the line.
But if you Google “wedding seating chart” and look at the examples, you’ll see many with a Table 1 section and a Table 2 section, etc., rather than a block of names that start with A, then a block that start with B, etc.