It’s time for another Wedding DIY, kids! This is my last one, but probably my favourite one: a seating plan for your wedding guests, made with Instax photos!
I was so happy with how this seating plan turned out at our wedding, and I think having photos of all of our guests made it feel more personal and more “us” than a fancy printed one. Plus, if you already have an Instax printer and a backlog of film like I did, it was actually very cheap to make. But if you have to invest in these things, it probably wouldn’t be worth it unless you wanted to get one anyway? That’s your call, babes. But here’s how I made it anyhow…
How To Create An Instax Seating Plan
What You Need
- A metal grid memo board – I got mine on Amazon but you can often get them in DIY stores like Homebase or B&Q.
- An Instax printer – I got mine for Christmas last year.
- Instax film with enough for all of your guests – multipacks are available.
- Mini pegs for attaching the photos to the grid – I found these pastel pegs that matched my wedding colours at Hobbycraft.
- Fairy lights – I just got cheap ones from Primark for £1!
- A sharpie pen.
Instructions
- Before you start – write out a list of your guests and decide how many photos you actually need. I recommend doing this after you get your RSVPs back so you don’t end up wasting film. I would also combine guests by couples or families in one photo, so you don’t have to use as much film!
- Now it’s time to source your photos! This part is actually harder than it sounds. Sure some of your guests might be like me and post their entire lives on social media, offering you lots of photo options. But a lot of them don’t! So you may need to text out to your friends and family for a portrait orientated photo. That means you shouldn’t leave this until the last minute though – some will take a while to get back to you. Top tip: before you print, make sure the photo is light and bright. Instax photos tend to come out a little darker, so some indoor photos may not be suitable.
- Using a Sharpie pen, write the name of the table each guest is sitting at on the white part of the photo. If you have hard-to-spell table names like we did (towns of Cinque Terre), I recommend writing them out once, to then copy onto the photos and avoid spelling mistakes!
- Before you put your photos onto the metal grid, it’s worth adding fairy lights round the outside first (so you can twist it round and photos don’t fall off!). I think the fairy lights added a nice touch, which you can’t really see in photos, but it looked really lovely and twinkly.
- Now, attach your seating plan photos to the grid as you see fit. You may want to organise by table, or just list them out like we did with close family and wedding party at the top, regardless of table. We used the little pastel pegs to attach them to the metal bars, but then also secured at the back using tape to avoid them falling off en-route or throughout the wedding day.
- Lastly, add a sign at the top – either with your wedding branding or just a “Seating Plan” header. Whatever suits you and the vibe of your day. We designed ours, using the same font from our stationary and signage, and just printed it ourselves onto card. This attaches the same way using pegs.
And voila! A DIY Instax seating plan for your wedding day. Like I said, we really loved ours, and our wedding guests got a kick out of it. If I was doing it again though, I would secure the photos a little bit more, as some of our guests took their photos off and it made it look a bit bare! I think I would also go down the route of using funny photos of our guests, as we had quite an informal and relaxed wedding. But that is the beauty of DIY! You can do it completely how you like.
Happy DIY-ing, lads! x
(All photos credited to our wonderful wedding photographer Heather Sham)
