Wedding signs: which ones you need

Which wedding signs do you need? Pick your venue and guest count below and each of twelve signs is marked must-have, optional or skip, with a size for each. Must-haves are the signs that stop a guest losing their way, their seat or the card box. Tick the extras you want, check the sizes, and print the list for your venue walk-through.

Nothing you pick is sent anywhere. Your choices are stored in the web address, so a copied link reopens the same list for your partner, your maid of honor or your venue.

Pick your venue and print your sign list

Sign list of twelve signs: must-have, optional or skip by venue type

The marks below are our own decision rules, not an industry standard. M is must-have, O is optional and S is skip. We marked a sign M when guests lose something without it: their way, their seat or their card box. We marked it S when venues usually supply it, which is an assumption to confirm with your venue.

Table: Twelve signs marked by venue type (our estimate, assumptions below)

Sign	Hotel or hall	Backyard or home	Outdoor site	Restaurant room	Two locations
Welcome sign	O	O	M	O	M
Unplugged ceremony sign	O	O	O	O	O
Table finder (seating chart)	O	O	O	S	O
Order of events	O	O	O	O	O
Reserved seating	O	O	O	O	O
Guest book sign	O	O	O	O	O
Cards and gifts sign	M	M	M	O	M
Bar menu	O	O	O	O	O
Restroom and wayfinding	S	M	M	S	O
Parking and shuttle	S	M	M	S	M
Photo and hashtag sign	O	O	O	O	O
Thank-you and favors sign	O	O	O	O	O
Must-haves, under 40 guests or no assigned seats	1	3	4	0	3
Must-haves, 40 guests or more with assigned seats	2	4	5	1	4

Assumptions behind the table:

Welcome is M where guests could not find the ceremony without it: an outdoor site and two locations.
Cards and gifts is M wherever a card box sits out in the open, because guests holding a card need to know where it goes. A small restaurant room is O, since a host or a table can take the cards.
Restroom and wayfinding and parking are M where you run the site yourself, so a backyard and an outdoor site. With two locations, parking is M and restrooms are O, since the venues usually mark their own.
Ask your venue: the S marks for hotels, halls and restaurant rooms assume the venue supplies its own restroom, exit and parking signs and that hosts seat small groups. Confirm both on the walk-through.
Guest-count rule, also ours: from 40 guests up with assigned seats, the table finder is raised to M in every column, which is the second count row. Without assigned seats it is S.
The bar menu is O everywhere, because guests can ask the bartender.
The last two rows come from counting the M marks in each column.

Not sure what your venue already provides? Use these questions to ask your venue on the walk-through, and send them the list from this page first.

Sizes: letter height from reading distance

Size is a reading problem. The sign-making rule we use is about one inch of letter height per ten feet of viewing distance. It was written for road and storefront signs, so we treat it as an upper bound on how far text reads. Guests read while they walk and talk, so go larger when unsure. We divide the distance in feet by ten to get a minimum height, then pick a sign size that fits that lettering.

Table: Minimum letter height and sign size by sign (our estimate, assumptions below)

Sign	Read from	Minimum letter height	Sign size we pick
Welcome sign	15 ft	1.5 in	18 by 24 in on an easel at the door
Unplugged ceremony sign	6 ft	0.6 in	11 by 14 in
Table finder	3 ft	0.3 in	See the guest-count table
Order of events	4 ft	0.4 in	16 by 20 in
Reserved seating	6 ft	0.6 in	5 by 7 in per seat or row
Guest book sign	3 ft	0.3 in	8 by 10 in
Cards and gifts sign	4 ft	0.4 in	8 by 10 in
Bar menu	4 ft	0.4 in	11 by 14 in
Restroom and wayfinding	15 ft	1.5 in	11 by 14 in, landscape, with an arrow
Parking and shuttle	20 ft	2.0 in	18 by 24 in, landscape, “Parking” at 3 in and “Shuttle” below it
Photo and hashtag sign	4 ft	0.4 in	8 by 10 in
Thank-you and favors sign	4 ft	0.4 in	8 by 10 in

Assumptions behind the table:

Reading distances are our guesses for a guest standing or walking toward the sign. The parking and wayfinding distances are for walking guests, such as from a lot to the gate, not for drivers.
If drivers must read the sign from the road, raise the distance. At 60 ft the rule gives 6 in letters, which needs a poster board larger than 18 by 24, so ask a print shop.
Minimum height is the distance divided by ten, rounded to one decimal.
Sign sizes are common frame and poster sizes we picked. They are not requirements. For the welcome sign, the welcome sign size page gives the exact figure for your distance.
Aim for lettering above the minimum, never below.
Text width: we assume a letter is about 0.55 times as wide as it is tall, in a plain sans-serif font. Characters that fit across a sheet equal its usable width divided by letter height times 0.55.

Check the words against the width, not only the height. “Parking and shuttle” is 19 characters. At 3 inch letters it runs about 31 inches, wider than a 24 inch sheet. So the sign says “Parking” large, about 12 inches wide, and “Shuttle” smaller on a second line. By the same width rule, a 24 inch sheet with 3 inch margins holds about 12 characters at 3 inch letters.

Five sheet sizes cover all twelve signs, from a 5 by 7 for seats to an 18 by 24 for the welcome sign.

Five wedding sign sizes drawn to scale with reading distance and signs: 5 by 7 inches, Read from 6 ft, Reserved seating; 8 by 10 inches, Read from 3 to 4 ft, Guest book, cards and gifts, photo, thank-you; 11 by 14 inches, Read from 4 to 15 ft, Unplugged, bar menu, wayfinding; 16 by 20 inches, Read from 4 ft, Order of events; 18 by 24 inches, Read from 15 to 20 ft, Welcome sign, parking and shuttle. Drawn to one scale. — Five sign sizes, to scale

Table finder size by guest count

A table finder lists every name with a table number, so the count of names sets the board. We assume 0.6 inch per row with 0.5 inch letters, a 5 inch header and 8 inches per name column.

Table: Table finder board by guest count, landscape boards (our estimate, assumptions below)

Guests	Board	Columns	Names per column
30	18 by 24 in	2	15
50	18 by 24 in	3	17
80	24 by 36 in	3	27
120	24 by 36 in	4	30
150	Two 24 by 36 in boards, A to L and M to Z	3 each	25

Assumptions behind the table:

An 18 by 24 board holds up to 21 rows and 3 columns, so up to 63 names.
A 24 by 36 board holds up to 31 rows and 4 columns, so up to 124 names.
Names are spread evenly across the columns, sorted by last name.
The 150 row splits the list in half, 75 names per board.
Longest name: with 0.5 in letters and the 0.55 width assumption, an 8 in column holds about 25 characters of name after a table number. A longer name, such as a double-barrelled surname, needs 0.4 in letters (about 31 characters) or two rows.

Build the list first with the seating chart maker, then paste the names onto the board.

Worked example: 80 guests in a backyard

Say you marry in a backyard with 80 guests and assigned seats. The column for a backyard gives three must-haves: cards and gifts, restroom and wayfinding, and parking. The guest-count rule adds the table finder, because 80 is above 40 with assigned seats. That leaves eight optional signs to choose from.

Table: Sign list for an example backyard wedding with 80 guests (our estimate, assumptions below)

Sign	Status	Size
Cards and gifts sign	Must	8 by 10 in
Restroom and wayfinding	Must	11 by 14 in, landscape
Parking and shuttle	Must	18 by 24 in, landscape
Table finder	Must, by the guest-count rule	24 by 36 in, 3 columns of 27
Welcome sign	Chosen optional	18 by 24 in on an easel
Bar menu	Chosen optional	11 by 14 in
Guest book sign	Chosen optional	8 by 10 in

Assumptions behind the table:

The couple chose three of the eight remaining optional signs.
Seven signs print in total, and five signs stay unprinted.
Every size comes from the tables above.
The 80 guests and the three chosen extras are invented for this example. The planner above opens on this same list.

Seven signs for 80 guests, and every one has a job.

Wedding sign ideas and wording to copy

Most guests read a sign for two seconds, so keep it to a short line. These are starting lines for the four signs people ask about most. Swap in your names and details. Each button copies the lines for that sign.

Welcome sign. For more layouts, see the wedding welcome sign maker.

Welcome to the wedding of Maya and Jordan
Saturday, June 12. We are so glad you are here.
Find your seat, find a drink, find us later for a hug.

Bar menu.

The bar: Maya’s margarita, Jordan’s old fashioned, beer, wine, soda and water
Two signature drinks, one for each of us. Pick a side.
Cheers to the couple. Drinks are on the left, water is on the right.

Cards and gifts sign.

Cards and well wishes go in the box
Your presence is the present. If you brought a card, it lives here.
We will read every card. Thank you.

Unplugged ceremony sign. The unplugged ceremony wording page has more versions.

Our ceremony is unplugged. Please put your phone away and be here with us.
Phones away, eyes up. Photos are welcome after the ceremony.
We want to see your faces, not your screens.

For a guest book table sign, see guest book sign wording.

Make your own wedding signs, step by step

You can make every sign on this page yourself. The order matters, because size comes before design.

Run the planner above and keep only the signs marked must-have or ticked.
Write each sign in eight words or fewer. Start from the lines above.
Look up the sign size and minimum letter height in the sizes table, and set your design file to that page size.
Pick lettering above the minimum, then check the longest word against the width rule in the sizes section.
Print one sheet at full size, stand at the reading distance and read it. If you squint, make the letters bigger.
Print up to letter size at home. Send anything larger to a print shop, with your exact sizes, and ask for a quote.
Mount each sign on foam board, in a frame or on an easel, and write the spot on the back so setup is quick.

Where each sign goes

Put each sign where the question comes up. Guests ask “where do I park” before they arrive, “where do I sit” at the door and “where do I put this card” once they hold it.

For the ceremony, place the unplugged ceremony sign where guests see it before they enter. The usual advice is to also put it on your wedding website and to have the officiant or a wedding party member repeat it briefly before the ceremony starts.

At the reception door, the table finder goes first, then the welcome sign just before or beside it. Put the cards sign next to the box, and the guest book sign at the guest book table.

A schedule board is optional but useful when people leave and return. Put the order of events on one page by the entrance.

Three mistakes and the fix for each

Letters too small to read. A sign that looks fine on a screen fails from six feet away. Fix: divide the distance by ten and check the sizes table.
Printing what the venue already has. Venues often supply their own exit and restroom signs, so yours may clash. Fix: ask the venue, and send the list before you print.
Nobody owns setup. Signs pile up in a trunk when everyone assumes someone else did it. Fix: name one person per sign and write the spot beside it.

Send it to the venue first

The cheapest sign is the one you do not print. The planner above builds a message with your list and link for the venue and another for your partner. Here is a plain version to use before you pick anything.

Example message to copy:

Hi, we are planning signs for our wedding. Which of these do you already provide: welcome easel, restroom and exit signs, table numbers, a cards box or a bar menu? We want to print only what you do not have.

Once the venue answers, untick what they supply. Then make the signs that sit at each seat with place cards, and print the wedding program for the day.

Wedding signs list with the number twelve in large type on a tilted paper sheet over a dark background

Save for later

Pin it now and find it when you are ready to plan.

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Questions people ask

Are wedding signs necessary?

No sign is required for a wedding to happen. A few do real work, though. They point guests to the ceremony, parking and restrooms, they show people their table, and they tell people where cards go. In a small room where everyone can see everything, you can print none. Use the planner above to find the must-haves for your venue type and guest count, and treat the rest as decoration.

What signs do you need at a wedding?

It depends on where you marry and how many guests come. By our marks, a hotel or hall needs a cards sign, plus a table finder from 40 guests with assigned seats. A backyard needs a cards sign, restroom and wayfinding, and parking. An outdoor site adds a welcome sign for the way in. A small restaurant room often needs none. Ask your venue what it already provides before you print restroom or exit signs.

What size should wedding signs be?

Size follows reading distance. A common sign-making rule is about one inch of letter height per ten feet of viewing distance, written for road signs, so we treat it as a limit and go larger when unsure. A sign read from ten feet needs letters at least an inch tall. Table-top signs read from three or four feet fit an 8 by 10 inch frame. For a welcome sign on an easel at the door, see the exact figure on the welcome sign size page.

Should I print wedding signs at home or at a print shop?

Anything up to letter size prints fine at home, and 8 by 10 or 5 by 7 signs can be trimmed from letter paper. Anything bigger than that needs a print shop that handles poster sizes. Ask for a quote with your exact sizes before you design, because larger sizes limit your layout and your lead time.

Sources

www.signs.com/blog/?p=16381 (opens in a new tab) : A sign-making rule of thumb of about 1 inch of letter height per 10 feet of viewing distance, for example 15 inches for 150 feet. It is written for road and storefront signs, so we use it as an upper bound on reading distance and compute the minimum letter height for each sign from it.
dianegottsman.com/2016/05/16/unplugged-wedding-etiquette-7-tips (opens in a new tab) : An unplugged ceremony is best announced on the wedding website, with a sign where guests enter and a brief friendly reminder from the officiant or a wedding party member before the ceremony starts.

Updated November 5, 2026 by bigdaydesk editorial