Table Numbers

At the October 2011 dinner for Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art's anniversary, each table number represented a year in the museum's 75-year history.

Moss-filled mason jars served as table numbers.

Large graphic table numbers added colorful decorative elements to the dinner area. Baumann explained that many guests took the pieces home as keepsakes.

Joseph Leigh Designs' decor included miniature globes and table numbers printed on fake passports.

LoLo Event Design offers hand-painted handkerchiefs that can serve as table numbers at a garden event. Set alongside flowers in a terra cotta pot, tables get a more casual feel than an elaborate formal centerpiece—just right for an alfresco event.

To add a piece of nature to the dining table centerpieces, table numbers were engraved on small pieces of a chopped log.

Artist Julene Harrison (madebyjulene.com) creates custom, hand-cut table numbers, from about $50 each, with discounts for orders of 10 or more. Her designs can be modern or intricate, and are easily slipped into acrylic photo frames for display.

Wilson also used moss in the tabletop centerpieces and replaced the traditional table numbers with traffic-sign-style cards.

Table numbers for the 1,270 who sat for dinner also featured umbrella designs.

The plexiglass table numbers were a twist on traditional paper ones.

Robert Isabell Inc. created floral centerpieces of roses and berries for the dinner tables. To mark table numbers, Bradley Associates procured postcards of artwork from students in the Studio in a School program.

Framed cards displayed table numbers.

The tables at a graffiti-themed bar mitzvah designed by David Stark Design and Production, held at Center 548 in New York, displayed arrangements of daffodils and ranunculuses sprouting from cinder block planters.

The handblown water glasses and vases placed on the tables came from students at the Watts Labor Community Action Committee’s glass program.

Playful centerpieces featured silver paint cans that held breadsticks and also Sharpie markers that guests could use to draw on the canvas tablecloths.