Here are the seating cards and display I did for the brown and green Jewish wedding featured last week.  I was inspired by this pin I found on Pinterest:

My first thought was to create a traditional-style tag so I bought a tag shape to cut with my Silhouette at the Silhouette Store.  Then I used the print and cut feature in Silhouette Studio to print the guests’ names and cut them out on chartreuse cover paper from Paper Source.  It looked pretty good at this point, but when I saw the full sheet of paper bag label paper, I couldn’t resist making my own hole reinforcement to give it the look of truly old-fashioned tags.

I loved the clothesline with the mini clothespins and I wanted to incorporate that into the tree theme from the invitations.  I started with some willow branches from Michael’s – though any branch would do, you just need something sturdy enough to hold the twine fully laden with seating cards.  The branches were secured together at the bottom with floral foam then the foam was wrapped with a piece of burlap ribbon leftover from the centerpieces. The branches were then tied with twine and placed in large vases (that were available for use at the synagogue). Then river rocks were arranged inside the vases to weigh them down.  I only bought 4 bags of river rocks which was sufficient but I also think it might have looked better with more.  {The vases could be further customized to match any decor by using flowers, etc.}  The cards were then attached one by one to the lines in alphabetical order.

Months ago, I ordered some unfinished hamsas in a couple of sizes (and some unfinished mezuzahs too – future project alert!) from Benny’s Educational Toys, the only place I’ve found unfinished wood Judaica.  I really wanted to put my own Jewish twist on the clothesline seating card display  so I decided to personalize the small hamsas for the couple and decorate the willow branches.  First, I painted the hamsas in the same Martha Stewart Vanilla Bean paint I used for the wedding centerpieces.  While the paint was drying, I cut out some shapes and sayings on the chartreuse cardstock using my Silhouette.  I decided to make 7 of them since 7 has special significance in Jewish weddings and Judaism in general. For example, there are 7 hakafot (circles) as well as 7 wedding blessings.  Finally, I used Mod Podge to glue and seal the cut outs onto the hamsas.  I LOVE the result!

Finally, you might note the large calendar below the seating cards – another Pinterest inspired idea of a calendar guest book  where guests signed on their birthday with either a date suggestion or words of wisdom for the couple.  So fun!  The brown owl vase was a Target find in the dollar section with classic Crayolas for that elementary school feel!

Have you seen any other Jewish twists incorporated in wedding decor?