Acrylic wedding signage covers the whole suite: welcome, seating chart, bar menu, order of events and table numbers. We work in 3mm, 5mm and 10mm clear, frosted, white, black and mirror sheet, cut to shape here.
Acrylic wedding signage is event signage cut from acrylic sheet, usually 3mm, 5mm or 10mm, then either printed or finished with cut vinyl lettering. In practice it means a matched set of pieces: the welcome sign at the entrance, the seating chart, a bar menu, an order of events and a run of table numbers, all made from the same sheet so they read as one suite.
Made by Melbourne Trade Signs, a large-format print and signage company on Unit 6/43 Orbis Drive, Ravenhall VIC 3023, in Melbourne’s west. Printed in-house and installed Australia-wide. Phone 0415 743 691.
Acrylic is chosen for depth. Light passes into the edge and the sheet has real presence, which foamboard and card cannot imitate. The trade-offs are honest ones. It is heavy, it scratches, cast sheet costs more than extruded, and a clear sign disappears against a busy background. Where the design is colour-heavy or the budget is tight, printed ACM gets closer to the intent for less money.
Everything is done at our Orbis Drive workshop in Ravenhall. Sheet is cut to size or laser cut to shape, lettering is weeded and applied by hand, and holes are drilled to your centres before the job leaves. No minimum applies, so a set of twenty table numbers and one welcome sign is an ordinary order rather than an awkward one.
Acrylic is specified by finish and by thickness. Finish controls how the lettering reads against the room; thickness controls whether a freestanding panel stays flat or slowly bows over an evening.
| Acrylic finish | Usual thickness | How it reads | Best used for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clear | 5mm or 10mm | Lettering appears to float | Welcome signs against draping or hedging |
| Frosted | 3mm or 5mm | Soft, even, hides fingerprints | Seating charts and bar menus |
| White | 3mm or 5mm | Maximum contrast, always legible | Text-heavy signs and dim rooms |
| Black | 3mm or 5mm | Gloss face, white or metallic vinyl | Formal and corporate events |
| Mirror-look | 3mm or 5mm | Reflective, photographs well | Statement welcome and seating signs |
| Tinted colour | 3mm or 5mm | Colour with light passing through | Table numbers and small accent pieces |
Shaped panels cost the same to cut as rectangles, so an arch top or a rounded corner is not an upgrade. Where a sign sits in an existing block, send the slot width and we will match the sheet.
The decisions worth spending time on are thickness, whether lettering is printed or vinyl, and which face carries the ink. Everything else is styling, and styling is yours to set.
Right for anything supported: signs in a stand, in a block, in a frame or fixed to a wall. Table numbers, small menus and framed panels all work in 3mm. Left freestanding above about A3 it flexes visibly, and a flexing sign looks cheap regardless of what it cost.
The everyday thickness. Rigid enough for A2 and A1 panels on an easel, still light enough to carry and pack without two people. Most seating charts, bar menus and order of events signs are 5mm. It is the default we quote unless a sign is large or unsupported.
For large freestanding panels, particularly A0 and 900 × 1200 mm welcome signs on easels. The extra thickness stops the slow bow that a thin large sheet develops under its own weight, and it gives a substantial edge when light catches it. Weight roughly doubles against 5mm.
Laser cutting leaves a flame-polished, glass-clear edge on acrylic, which is why cut shapes look finished rather than sawn. Arches, circles, hexagons and custom outlines all cut cleanly. Internal cutouts and slots for hanging are cut in the same pass at no extra handling.
Solid colour vinyl cut to the letterform, weeded and applied by hand. Edges are genuinely sharp, and matte, gloss and metallic finishes are all available. It is the correct choice on clear and mirror sheet. Very fine scripts have a practical limit, roughly 1.5 mm stroke width.
Printing onto the back face of clear acrylic so the image is viewed through the sheet. The result has a glass-like depth, the ink is protected from scratching, and colours look richer. It requires the artwork to be mirrored, and a white ink layer behind the colour to keep it opaque.
We drill mounting holes to your centres for standoffs, hooks or ribbon hanging. Holes should sit at least 15 mm in from any edge, because acrylic will crack if a hole is drilled too close or a fixing is overtightened. Rounded corners are worth adding on any hung sign.
Ordering welcome, seating, menu, order of events and table numbers together means one sheet batch, one ink run and one delivery. Sheet colour varies slightly between production batches, particularly on frosted and tinted stock, so a suite ordered piecemeal over months will not match perfectly.
Stylists order suites rather than single signs, and usually arrive with a design already resolved down to the font. What they need from us is accurate execution: the right sheet, clean cutting, lettering applied straight and square, and everything arriving together in one delivery. We flag when a chosen thickness will bow at the size specified, which is easily the most common problem in files that come to us fully designed.
Venues buy acrylic for the pieces that get reused every weekend: table numbers, bar menus, amenities markers and small directional signs. A set of 3mm table numbers will survive hundreds of events if it is stored flat with the protective film left on until first use. We supply them in runs with a few spares included, because one or two always go missing inside the first season.
Plenty of people want their signage made properly rather than printed at home and taped to a foamboard offcut. The usual order is a welcome sign and a seating chart, sometimes a bar menu and a set of table numbers alongside them. We will tell you when acrylic is not worth the money, for instance on a small sign that gets read once at a distance and then thrown out.
Black or white acrylic with white or metallic vinyl lettering suits formal corporate events far better than clear sheet does, because rooms are dim and backgrounds are busy. Typical pieces are a branded welcome panel, a table plan, sponsor acknowledgement signs and numbered table markers. Where the event needs full branding across walls and stands as well, our sister company Event Signs covers that side of it.
Acrylic is unforgiving of low-resolution artwork because the surface is so clean, and cut lines have to be exact. These are the things worth getting right before we cut anything.
None of that is a barrier. Send the wording, the fonts you like and any reference images, and we will build the file, add cut lines properly and send a proof showing the shape and the finished size.
Cutting, lettering, drilling and packing all happen in the one workshop, which is why an acrylic suite does not disappear into somebody else’s schedule for a week. Give us the date of the event when you enquire, not after the artwork is approved. Pickup from Ravenhall in business hours, delivery through Melbourne metro and regional Victoria, and freight interstate where the wedding is away.
Use 5mm for most freestanding signs up to A1, 10mm for A0 and larger panels on easels, and 3mm only where the sign is supported.
Thickness matters because acrylic creeps. A large thin sheet standing on an easel through a warm evening develops a slow bow that does not fully recover. Below about A3 the effect is negligible, which is why table numbers and small menus are fine in 3mm. Above A1, the difference between 5mm and 10mm is the difference between a flat sign and a curved one.
Frosted is the safer choice for anything with a lot of text; clear looks better but only against a plain background.
Clear acrylic shows whatever is behind it, so lettering set against a busy hedge, a patterned wall or a crowd becomes hard to read and photographs poorly. Frosted diffuses the background into a soft even field, so contrast stays constant wherever the venue puts the sign. Frosted also disguises fingerprints, which matters on a sign guests will touch.
Yes, printing to the back face of clear sheet, a method called second-surface printing, gives the glass-like look people are after.
The image sits behind the acrylic and is viewed through it, so the surface stays perfectly smooth and the colour gains depth. It also protects the ink completely, since nothing can scratch a print that sits on the reverse. The artwork has to be mirrored before printing, and a white ink layer goes down behind the colours so they do not turn translucent.
Leave the protective film on both faces until the sign is being set up, and carry panels vertically rather than flat.
Acrylic scratches more easily than glass and a flat sheet flexing in the back of a car is how corners crack. Store and transport upright with something soft between panels. Clean only with a soft cloth and warm soapy water or an acrylic-safe cleaner. Window cleaner containing ammonia will haze the surface and can craze the sheet over time.
Yes, and we drill them here rather than leaving it to site. Drilling acrylic with a standard timber or metal bit chips the face.
Holes need to sit at least 15 mm in from any edge, and the fixing must never be tightened hard against the sheet, because acrylic has no give and will star-crack around a compressed hole. Nylon washers or standoff spacers solve this. Send the hole centres with your artwork and we will match them to your fixings or your ribbon spacing.
For signs that get photographed, handled or reused, yes. For a single-use sign read once at a distance, printed ACM or foamboard does the same job for less.
What you buy with acrylic is edge quality, thickness and the way light moves in the sheet. None of that shows up in a photo taken from six metres. Our usual advice is to spend on the welcome sign and seating chart, where guests stand close, and use printed board for the peripheral signs nobody examines.
The commercial side of the same material: reception logos, office and suite signage, wayfinding and door signs in clear, white and coloured acrylic with standoff fixings.
See the detail →Sized against guest numbers rather than the room, with column structure and minimum text heights set so a queue keeps moving past the door instead of bunching up.
See the detail →Entry panels in acrylic, ACM, foamboard and timber-look board, from A1 to 1200 × 1800 mm, with easel sizing and wind measures worked out for outdoor and garden ceremonies.
See the detail →Browse the full list on our A–Z of everything we print, or see how this fits into signage in Melbourne.
List the pieces you need, the sizes and the finish. We will price the set together and reply within two business hours.