Early on in the wedding planning I got the idea from somewhere about making personalised badges for each of our guests. Little buttons with a relevant picture and each guests name, which would double as a favour and also a placecard.
The idea was that they would be sort of fun, and each one would have a bit of a story behind it. So not only would they help guests working out each others names, but also serve as a bit of a conversation starter.
image via Black Eiffel
That was the idea anyway. I made a start. Began cutting out some pics from magazines, wrapping paper and old cards (eg VW symbol for my kombi loving cousin, green damask for my friend obsessesed by green, owl for my friend who collects owls, tartan for my scottish Auntie etc) I bought some clear tape for the label maker, I rang around to get some quotes on badge making costs and patted myself on the back for being all crafty and stuff.
But I have now scrapped it. Because:
1. We are having a over 150 guests. And thats a lot of badge making. I don't want to be up until 1am the night before the wedding pumping out buttons.
2. We are having a cocktail reception so no formal seating. In which case the badges wouldn't actually be doubling as place cards after all. Which was the main point. Name badges that serve only as name badges seems a bit too corporate team building to me.
3. Couldnt think of a good way to give them to people. Handing out a name badge doesn't seem as cool as having one waiting for you at your seat. I didn't want it to seem like we were forcing name badges on people.
So we're not doing it. In fact I'd say this means we are not doing bonfavs at all. Up Yours BonFavs!
But I still really like this idea and am a little sad to let it go. I do think its a really good idea for anyone having a small sit down dinner reception