The Wedding Seating Chart
We know it can be tough to figure out how to arrange your seating chart. Figuring out who sits where, and making sure all your guests are happy and comfortable, can sometimes be a challenge. We’re here to offer you some advice.
The bride and grooms table is usually placed centrally and at the edge of the dance floor. Members of the bridal party, parents, and close members of family sit with them or at table nearby.
Since the meal is where guests spend the most time together, you want to ensure that your guests have comfortable conversation with those that they are seated with. Typically, you’ll want to seat like people together. You’ll want to seat your co-workers together, your college friends together, your family members together, etc. You want to make sure everyone is seated with people they know when possible.
You could also consider seating by age rather than family. Instead of seating your aunt and uncle with their children, seat all the children together, and seat your aunt and uncle with other family members their age.
Seating single people can sometimes create a dilemma. You definitely want to avoid doing a singles table, so just do your best to fit each person in somewhere. Seat them with people they will know. You might even want to try a little bit of matchmaking if you have two single friends who you think may hit it off!
You may also consider asking each set of parents whom they would like seated at their table.
If your officiant accepted your invitation to the reception, he or she should be seated at the head table or with your parents.
If you are opting to assign specific seats, instead of just specific tables, then there is a general rule of thumb: if you are using round tables, seat males and females alternatively. If you are using long tables, seat couples across from each other, and alternate males and females on each side of the table.
However, this rule may not always be best, especially if you have gay couples, good friends of the same gender, or those whos “plus one” is a sibling, same sex friend, or parent. Use your discretion to decide what works best for your guests.
We had a kid table at one of our recent weddings along with a variety of kid friendly games. That was a big hit!
If you are interested in having a seating chart created that goes on a easel so your guests know where to sit at the reception give us a call at 248-408-4602 or send us an email for more information. You can also find more about this service if you click on the word seating chart and then scroll down to the bottom of the page.
photo credit: http://theweddingplanningguides.com/
~Liz