Organizing Captivating Themed Tables

Seating arrangements can be a real challenge, but there are ways to make it fun – especially if you have inspiration that offers some meaningful connection or decorative elements that can add some vibrancy. Here are a handful of ways to break up the tables with a personalized touch.

Who doesn’t want to be compared to famous power couples like Beyonce and Jay Z or George and Amal Clooney? Look up some of your favorite pairs and pick and choose who should sit where as a cheeky inside joke with your guests. For instance, Sonny and Cher or Olivia Newton John and John Travolta for your parent’s best friends and comedic couples who bring back great memories like Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz for more seasoned relatives. Or, why not choose a theme within a theme and feature cartoon couples like Barney and Betty Flinstone, Homer and Marge Simpson, or Popeye and Olive? The options are endless.

For a subtle, yet whimsical, botanical touch, pictures of different kinds of plants and herbs for each table offer an organic and green feel, even if your tables are not set outside. For additional fancifulness, try for vintage prints. The Biodiversity Heritage Library offers an open-access digital library including over 2 million illustrations and photographs of the natural world. There are beautiful, hand-painted versions and other options that can be extremely detailed, so your choices can reflect on everything from your love of nature to your French ancestry. The downloadable photostream showcases 19th century birds of Australia and botanicals and biodiversity hailing from German, English, South African and French origins.

Most destination weddings are an eclectic global mix – with friends and family visiting from all parts of the world. Throwing Israel in as the destination location means guests are an inevitable melting pot of cultures, ethnicities, and backgrounds. Trigger meaningful conversation amongst guests who may not yet know one another and set the tables with country themes pertaining to who is sitting where and who calls where “home”. Friends and family will have no shortage of stories to share through dinner and then some.

Perhaps you have full tables dedicated to friends from University, friends from your time served in the army, or childhood friends growing up. If you have enough big groups that can be formed into full tables, it could be great fun to wrangle paraphernalia from your past for the center pieces that only each of the specific tables will adore and understand. It will take some extra leg work, but the look on their faces when they spot your college maskot front and center or a long-lost, unearthed time capsule will be entirely priceless.