Table Names

You could play on the football theme, if it’s something you have in common. You could have the names of stadiums your teams play at, home and away over the last season or a season that was meaningful. I know you say there aren’t many crossover players, but players/managers are an option. Have you gone to matches together that you could use the place/competition/opposition (appreciate the last one might be controversial!).
If that’s something you have in common I’d go for that, or something else you might have in common that your friends and family know you for (films, food, books, wine?).
Or you could keep numbers, but have pictures on the table numbers that relate to the numbers - football players who had that number, photos of the two of you at that age.Me and my OH both like sports and go to a lot of different sporting events, so instead of table numbers we’ve named ours after stadiums we’ve been to of different sports. I’m sure you’ll come up with something different and personal to you ☺️

I was going to suggest what Natalie said about having photos of you and your partner at different ages as table numbers, I quite like that idea!

There's quite a few more recent lists online with different ideas for a browse: https://whimsicalwonderlandweddings.com/50-wedding-table-name-ideas/ It is also worth remembering that wedding sites do tend to push having a very distinctive 'theme' but remember you can do whatever you like and feel comfortable with. It sounds like you have a color scheme mapped out and a good idea of what wouldn't suit you which is a good start. Depending on your style, there's good examples of people using animals/nature/names of plants/birds (that works really nicely with a rustic style, there's some beautiful watercolor postcard style table names online with illustrations of the animals/plants). I have seen things like lyrics/titles from songs, quotes, 'firsts' from your relationship with a photo/story underneath work for more informal quirky styles. Iconic food/drink brands and things from your childhood era (iconic games, sweets etc.) can be lots of fun to explore. I went with a mix of places that are connected to us as a couple and individuals (so where we grew up and some places we visited so not all of them have a joint connection - there's no rule saying they need to, after all). If you feel really daring, you can always just allocate people a seat and then ask each table to name themselves as an ice-breaker on the day/send in suggestions when they RSVP - best table names get a bottle of wine! Good luck, I'm sure you'll come up with something that's right for you.

Not sure if this is an option to you but if it helps for inspo we're basing ours on the table decorations because we decided not to use flowers for these as a cost saving decision. We're getting married by the beach and I already have a whitewashed lighthouse that would look really nice in the centre of a table so that's where the idea came from. We're going to cover them in tiny fairy lights so they still look nice in the evening and pop them in the centre of each table. My mum has a white/grey sailboat that she says we can use and recently we found a big white shell so that's three tables named so far... "Lighthouse", "Sailboat", "Seashell" and whatever else we find!

Logic was that people can spot the object to help them find the table, rather than looking for a table name tag, it's thematic but hopefully not too cheesy, and the original items were inspired by things already used as home decor so hopefully anything additional we buy we'd want to display in our house anyway so easier to justify the money. We really didn't want table numbers, just because we didn't want anyone to feel less important if they were sat at table 5 rather than table 2.

The top table will probably just be called "Top Table" - my parents helpfully have some turquoise (wedding colour) outside lanterns which we're going to dot along the top table and in between them we're going to pop little bay and rosemary plants (can get for like £1 in supermarkets) in between them as this is our favourite scent so the whole room will smell nice too. We could come up with a name based on that but I think people expect "Top Table" so we're not stressing too much about a special name for it.

We are doing flowers, all in our colour scheme which is pink/blush. So will have peony, rose, cherry Blossom etc. Then we are encorperating that flower (faux) in the table centerpiece ☺️

How about famous police tv show and films.

Starsky and Hutch

Morse

the sweeny

Frost

Robo cop

You get the idea.

We have having place names of our favourite places we have visited and then added a picture of us at that place. for example we have Rome and them then picture of us by the trevi fountain.

We chose local locations that were special to us - and our own table was the place where he proposed! You could do that.

Places/hobbies don't have to be common to you both. You could do places that were relevant to your single lives and maybe put a question under them relating to your time there. If you have a mix of friends/family from both sides on each table, this could provide a talking point.

Or you could have different 'blues' to fit in with your blue theme. Azure, Navy, Ultramarine

Or blue things from the natural world - blueberry, bluebird, bluebell...

My OH loves whisky so I'm using empty bottles with fairy lights as a centre piece so the tables will just be whatever the whisky bottle is on the table.

We are having Christmas movies for our December wedding,


You could go for football teams who play in blue?

I like the whisky bottle idea. My sister had Champagne houses as table names. Different gin is also an idea. I like the shades of blue idea too.

Bit simple but as we were totally unsure on table names, we went with old fashioned 1,2,3 etc... Stops the headache! 😝 Either way it's an option if it gets too much xx

It’s far too early for me to be planning this, but I was think about using letters to spell out our dog’s name! So Table H, Table A, etc.


She’s probably too naughty to come to the ceremony or for photographs so it might be a nice way to incorporate her into the day….
You could maybe try to spell out a place that means something to you, or use numbers to spell out a significant date so it’s all random and no one table feels more important than the other? E.g. say you met on the 18th of July, you could have Table 1, Table 8, Table 0, Table 7, etc.
Although I do love Chloe’s idea - might have to steal that if FH won’t go with the dog theme!

Thank you to everyone who's contributed - lots of great ideas for us to think about!

We are having craft beer bottles as my fiancé is a bit obsessed with trying new beers. We are using the actual bottles then adding a wooden number stick from Hobbycraft inside the bottle sprayed blue. On the table plan we are putting the name of the beer and the number of the table together to help in case people don’t see the beer names.

Like you we didn't want table numbers and we didn't want to go for something generic. Instead we have named our tables after places or things that are important to us. For example one of our tables is called Blenheim as we got engaged at Blenheim Palace, another one is called Principal as that was the name of the hotel we stayed in on our favourite trip away. We haven't been to loads of places, so we have also used hobbies and our favourite day trips.

So perhaps an idea is so think of places or things that mean something to you both and naming your tables after those

Maybe have a photo of you both on each year you’ve been together or special moments in your relationship? 🥰

What about names of your favourite places you've been tomorrow pubs nightclubs or resteraunts