Last week I showed you some of my fave seating plans, so this week I thought I’d follow on from that with a look at table names and numbers. Not least because the gorgeous crafty wedding I featured yesterday included such fantastic bespoke number cards with bird embellishment hand drawn by the bride herself. Obviously not everyone has the time, inspiration or, ahem, skills (I can’t draw for toffee – I suck big time – it has always disappointed me) but there are plenty of suppliers offering personalised creative solutions, including Ruth herself through her fab Blue Eggs & Tea Etsy store (as I mentioned on Tuesday). So here’s a look at some of the options I’ve seen this year, from simplest form of number cards through quirky DIY ideas that fit in with the theme of the day, to really creative table names and clever table decorating tricks.

Let’s kick of with Ruth’s sweet birdie number cards, simply propped up again stone jars of seasonal flowers. Cute as can be!

The simplest way is often to have a simple number on the table, and if you’re them is fairly minimal and laid back this works brilliantly. Here it compliments the pretty garden flower posies that decorate the tables, for example.Bee & Lee are both artists and chose to hand letter their cards in a bold and unforgettable font. They held the cards between 2 paint brushes (genius) dropped into the collection of jars and bottles (some hand painted to add interest) containing seasonal garden flowers for a striking result!Becca and John used these adorable wooden blocks for their shabby chic inspired tables. Perfect!Anna & James used golds at the foundation of their winter wedding colour scheme so these typewriter font numbers in gilt frames fitted in brilliantly.Clare & Alex had a colourful, hand made, mix and match look at their wedding. Clare hand made these wonderful patchwork feel numbers from colourful card stock, supported by heart shaped wire frames. I think they look fantastic!Liz and Jamie’s festival inspired tipi wedding used chalk boards which tied in perfectly with their twiggy table plan and looked perfect on these rustic tables.And one of the most jaw dropping DIY feats I’ve seen this year? It has to be the handiwork of Helen for her marriage to Caie in October. Take a pair of old school gaming geeks, one lady who likes crafting, give her a selection of beads and some glass frames and – oh my word she’s only gone and made all of the super mario characters. Yes. She made these. Out of beads. You should have seen the massive Zelda & Link characters by the wishing well (aka post box). AMAZING!!!!!!!Ayshea and James also tied their tables in strongly with their theme, using these individual London Underground signs on mini easels. Super cute, right?One of my favourite ideas for stunning simplicity was Gemma & Dey’s use of luggage tags tied around whisky bottles containing soem of the most stunning flowers I ever did see. Look at those colours! The theme was A Mid Summer Night’s Dream. I absolutely loved the whole concept for the tables, those beautiful wooden mats with the bottles, cones, dried fruit and cinnamon. Beautiful.Helen & Woody picked a theme that meant a lot to them – peaks that they have climbed together. Love the use of skewers and tall plain glass bottles to support them. Super simple and really effective. A definite talking point too!Another couple whose theme meant something special to them was Hannah and Mark, as featured last week. I loved these little penguin cards. Also, I would like a Chinstrap penguin. So cute!For my last wedding of 2013, Lou and Dunc picked a Christmassy theme with each table represented by one of Santa’s Reindeers. How sweet are these illustrations. I’ve always had a massive soft spot for reindeer so this one definitely made me smile.Beckie and Aaron had a Corpse Bride theme running throughout their day so these simple illustrated table cards were perfect.And finally, Hannah and Sam, the Midsomer Murder fans. What can I say? Their cake topper was a model of them holding a teeny tiny DVD of Midsomer Murders so obviously their table names had to be places featured in the show. Love colours – how perfectly do they match the flowers? Lovely stuff.This post was brought to you by Belle & Sebastian : Tigermilk