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Easy Steps to Create a Vintage Wedding Seating Chart

Do you like to craft? What about DIY projects? Have a special event coming up? Well if you do then you will love this project. Today I’m sharing with you how I created this beautiful vintage-style seating chart. 

This beautiful wedding seating chart is perfect for a wedding…but really can be used for any special occasion or event where you may need to assign seats.

The creative options for seating charts are endless today! 

There are so many ideas out there but I just love the classic elegance of this seating chart.

Wait until you see how pretty it looked at the ceremony!

When my sister got married I was honored to help her with some of the little details to make their day special.

She created a Pinterest board with some ideas that she liked and shared them with me.

The seating charts she had saved on her Pinterest board varied in style…but her favorite was this one.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t a “how-to” to follow but I knew I could recreate it for her

OR at least I hoped I could!

Beautiful Venue Demands an Elegant Wedding Style

The wedding was held at a beautiful waterfront estate in Florida.

Their wedding colors were blush pink and mixed metals of gold and silver.

Modern traditional was what I’d describe as their wedding style.

Since the seating chart was definitely a classic style I set out to find frames to match that style.

I wasn’t able to find any traditional or vintage style frames that would work in my usual go-to stores because they are filled with the ever-popular rustic farmhouse trend.

I decided to check out the Dollar Store & Walmart, especially since I needed 12 frames, so I was hoping they would be a bit more budget-friendly.

Where to Purchase Affordable Frames

stack of frames in shopping cart

I was able to find several traditional-styled 5×7 frames at the dollar store.

They were okay…I didn’t love them but I figured I was going to paint them anyway…so I bought a few.

Then I headed over to Walmart to find that they had a great selection of inexpensive 5×7 vintage classic frames.

Unfortunately, many of the exact frames I purchased are no longer available online.

You can check your local Walmart or you can shop for frames online from Amazon here, here, and here!

And this set of four and this set of two would be more affordable if you don’t mind having a few duplicates in your seating chart design.

A list of sources for this project can be found at the end of this article.

frames laid out on wood table before painted

Once I got them all home I got to work with the layout.

At first, it looked ok but not great…I tried to figure out what I wasn’t loving about the design.

I finally realized that I really didn’t love the dollar store frames in the mix with the other frames I got from Walmart.

Can you tell which ones are from the dollar store?

See the smaller (or actually thinner) frames on the top and bottom rows?

Yup, those are the dollar store frames!

I just felt like they weren’t as beefy…is beefy a word I can use to describe a frame…haha?

They looked too small…or maybe it’s that they were a bit cheaper looking in comparison to the other frames.

I don’t know…but either way I knew that they had to go!

Back to Walmart, I went to.. get more “beefy” frames! LOL

How to Paint Picture Frames

three cans of spray paint on drop cloth

Now that I had all the frames I needed to make the seating chart the fun can begin…painting!

I found three different metallic shades of paint that were just perfect for the seating chart.

Krylon brushed metallic paint in the shades caramel latte, nickel, and champagne nouveau gave me the matte look I wanted.

S2M Tip – Use post-it notes to label where each frame is in the design and which color to paint you are using for each

I used post-it notes to label everything so that I knew exactly where each frame should be placed after designing the seating chart.

Also using labels to determine which frame would be painted which color since I was using three different metallic paint colors.

The post-its helped me keep everything in order as I worked.

spray painting frames

Since the glass is easily removable in photo frames I took it out of each frame before painting.

I worked on top of a drop cloth and cardboard in my garage…using plastic cups to lift each frame up off the floor.

Once all twelve frames were set up, I did two coats of spray paint on each.

Be sure to let them dry before applying the second coat of paint.

*S2M Tip – When spray painting use even and light passes to avoid drip marks.

How to Build a Large Photo Frame Wedding Seating Chart 

photo of measuring frames

The easiest way to build the back support would be to just adhere all the frames to a solid piece of plywood. 

This would work perfectly if all your frames have straight edges and you were lining them up in a grid design.

You could also paint the plywood or backboard a gold color to blend in better with the individual picture frames.

But…

There’s always a but with me, isn’t there?! 

This beautiful wedding seating chart was going to be displayed on a large floor easel at the wedding reception and since the frames were different shapes I didn’t want to attach them to a solid backboard.

I wanted to be able to see through the little spaces between all of the separate photo frames.

picture of back wood frame assembled

Building the support to hold all the frames together was going to be a bit of a challenge so I enlisted my husband Chris to help me.

He built the back support frame a little bit smaller than the layout design I had come up with so that you wouldn’t be able to see any of the wood between the frames.

Chris used pieces of scrap wood we had here at home left over from another project.

He created the back support in two layers…the first was a square on the bottom…then on top, he used small pieces and cut them into a grid pattern so that each of the twelve frames was supported.

Print Wedding Seating Assignments

frames laid out on table

The actual seating assignments were designed on Canva which is a graphic design tool website. Canva can be used for both web and print media designs.

We use Canva Pro to create all of our social media graphics for this blog.

It’s simple to use, then download to your computer and print.

I promise…if I can do it so can you!

After creating the table seating assignments in Canva, I printed them on white card stock and put them into each frame.

close uf of frame with instgram tag info

Don’t you just love the hashtag trend for weddings today?

Now you can use your cell phone & social media rather than those disposable cameras on each table from back in the good ‘ole days when I got married. 

Should You Use the Glass in Your Picture Frames?

I decided not to add the glass back onto each of the frames for a few reasons.

First, remember these frames were cheap and as I tried to put them back together those little dust pieces that come off the edges of the frame inevitably kept dropping between the glass and printed card stock.

Super frustrating!

Another, reason I decided against the glass was the possible glare, especially in pictures…because weddings are all about photography.

Nobody has time for that!

And finally, transporting the frame with the glass could have been an accident waiting to happen.

After all the work we did to make this seating chart I wouldn’t want to have broken glass all over the back of my car.

Although we did bubble wrap the entire seating chart to transport even without the glass.

Just call me nervous Nelly!

How to Assemble Wedding Seating Chart

gorilla glue bottle on table in from of frams

Once the seating assignment table cards were slipped into place in the front of each picture frame, I could begin attaching the frames to the back support Chris built.

I used Gorilla glue for this project because I wanted to be absolutely certain each of those frames was secure and not going to fall off the back support frame.

Starting with the top middle frame I adhered each individual frame to the wood back support.

Then placed stacks of heavy books on top of the frames to give the glue time to set and dry.

I was amazed by how well the gorilla glue worked.

Here is a look at the back of the project with all the frames securely glued to the wood-framed back support.

back of frames showing how to assemble

It may not look super pretty from this side but it sure is sturdy.

The wedding was a beautiful and special day for all of us.

And I was honored to be able to help with some of the little details.

I also made fan ceremony programs, favor tags, and tented number cards for each table.

You need to go check out my simple tutorial for making Elegant Classic Wedding Fan Programs.

collection of frames attached to create elegant seating chart

My sister donated her seating chart to the wedding venue in hopes that other couples can use it on their special day too! ❤

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Pin it to remember it:

Abby

Friday 4th of March 2022

What did he use to have the pieces of the wood frame stay together?

AnnMarie

Friday 4th of March 2022

Hi Abby - The frame is all held together by nails...there are shorter pieces of wood stacked on top of longer pieces to create a solid wood frame to glue the 5x7 photo frames on. Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.

Anne Engbring

Tuesday 18th of January 2022

Thank you so much for this beautiful seating chart. My daughter would like something like this for her wedding in the fall.

I have one question: Can you tell me what kind of wood, size, etc. your husband used to create the frame? My husband thinks he can do it, but would like a little guidance/instruction first!

Thanks so much,

Anne

AnnMarie

Tuesday 18th of January 2022

Hi Anne - Thanks so much for reaching out about the wedding seating chart. We used left over wood pieces from a previous project and made our frame to fit the back of the 5x7 frames. I'd recommend laying out all of your photo frames and measuring the total size (length and width) you'd need your back frame to be. Frame dimensions can be different so what worked for our seating chart may not work for yours depending on the thickness of your individual photo frames. The other option that may be much easier is to cut one piece of plywood a bit smaller than all of your frames then adhere each one to the plywood backing. I'd just paint the plywood to coordinate with your frame colors. I hope this helps! Have a great week!

Joyce

Monday 27th of December 2021

Hi, I love this! I wanted to know what font you used in canva or if you sell a template?

Thanks!

Anne

Tuesday 28th of December 2021

Hey Joyce! Thanks so much for reaching out! I'm so glad you liked this seating chart idea. We are planning to offer the template for FREE in 2022 in the VIP section of our blog, all you need to do is subscribe and you'll be notified when it's added. If you need the chart more quickly, the script font is called Great Vibes and the other font is Josefin Slab. Let us know if that helps and if we can help in any other way!

Tara

Monday 26th of July 2021

Lovely! Exactly what we were looking for- we are going to use velcro strips to adhere the frames to the board so it's easy to take the frame off and replace the picture/stick it back :)

AnnMarie

Monday 26th of July 2021

That's such a great idea to use velcro strips. Thanks for sharing Tara!

ilaria d'ambrosio

Friday 16th of April 2021

Hi, I haven't understood the way you let it stay on the floor. Have you bought an easel? Thanks a lot! It's amazing and I will try to do for my wedding! :)

AnnMarie

Friday 16th of April 2021

Hi there! The venue had a large easel that we were able to use to display the wedding seating chart. Here is an easel you can order online: https://rstyle.me/+UpSmAVcmFInIXtHzy4GpGA