One of my clients asked me to do some more work for her daughters bat mitzvah this past weekend. She had seen a photo of drawn-on picnic benches for on Instagram, and decided she wanted to somehow incorporate this idea to the tables at the reception. We scratched our heads a little bit, trying to decide how we could make this work, considering her tables would be round tops, and I don't live anywhere near the venue. In addition to that, some of the tables would seat 7, some 8, some 9, and some 10. So it was going to be tricky for me to measure out the settings so that they all fit and work with the guests seats at the table.
I'm not a math whiz. And I am even less of a geometry whiz. And this project was going to need some angle math. So with my dad's help over the holiday, we made some makeshift tools that would help me realize the angles that each setting needed to sit between, specific to the number of people at the table.
The tables were about 60" in diameter, so we had to first find a roll of paper that would completely cover the top of the table. Amazon delivers on this! Heavy as hell, but exactly the diameter needed to cover the table.
Next hurdle was to make a compass that would draw even and accurately measured circles on the paper. This was made with two pencils and come very taut string. Dad and I crouched and waddled on the floor each taking one end of the pencil, and followed it around in a circle, creating about 17 circles (13 were needed).
Once we got these all cut out (also a tough job) I rolled them up in to the car and drove them back to my apartment after the holiday.
After Susan planned out all of her table assignments, and exactly how many tables of each number she was going to have, I could finally start to draw on the place settings. A placemat, fork, knife, and spoon made for the setting, and obviously varied in size based on how wide an angle I had to make the settings. Of course the tables with 7 had the most breathing room, and had the biggest setting.
