The 3 Main Ways to Seat your Guests at your Wedding
While planning your wedding, you have to keep in mind the guests that you are inviting. Having a massive dinner with hundreds of people can be really daunting for everyone involved. The best way to keep things nice and orderly is to help your guests find a place to sit with the people they likely want to be around. When thinking about seating your guests at your wedding, there are plenty of ways to do this where your guests will be satisfied and not have to think about it. Here are the ways that you can seat your guests.
Assigned Tables with One Indicator
Typically, this seating option is the most popular with having a seating chart displayed where all the guests can find their assigned table. Having a seating chart is they easiest way to indicate to your guests where they should be without as much of the stress on you for figuring out where each person must sit. This also is nice for your guests to be able to decide and not feel stuck if you decided something they don’t really like. You can organize your seating chart alphabetically by last name which is the easiest for your guests to find their names, or you can organize it by table number and alphabetizing their names still in those sections just so it doesn’t take too long for them to find their seats. This seating arrangement without having to decide their specific seats is possible with any kind of catering style (buffet, family style, or plated), as long as you provide escort cards instead of a seating chart. These will be individual cards that will say their names and the table number they are supposed to sit at that they will bring to their table. These escort cards will also have their meal choices on them if you are having a plated meal, and they definitely should be organized on one table alphabetically by last name since it will usually be much smaller and slightly more difficult for them to find their names.
Assigned Seating at Tables with Two Indicators
This option is usually if you would like to have some kind of personalized place card at the reception tables that have each guests’ names on them. You can really have all three of these options (seating chart, escort cards, and place cards) if you please, but typically couples choose either a seating chart or escort cards paired with the place cards. You can also have the “escort cards” at the guests’ seats and have a seating chart in the cocktail hour area and not opt for place cards if you don’t have any particular ideas for place cards. The photo here shows what a place card would look like - it’s typically something your planner or coordinator will have to set at each chair for you so your guests can take them home if they please. The main difference between an escort card and a place card is that the escort card is usually in the cocktail hour space that the guests pick up and use to “escort themselves” to their seats, whereas a place card is usually “placed” at their assigned chair at the table. Many people use these words interchangeably but that is what you may hear while figuring this out.
No Assigned Seating or Tables
The last way to seat your guests is to let them decide themselves. This is a nice idea for you, because figuring out how to divide up your family and friends is quite an intense task, however I personally don’t recommend this option. Usually this seems like the easiest option because people can figure things out themselves, but what typically happens is that there are “non perfect” amounts of people that only partially fill up tables, leaving 1-3 chairs open that no one really wants to try sitting at. When this happens, you’ll end up with a bunch of people that can’t fit at tables and you’ll have to pull together extra tables for them to feel comfortable. If you have many families of 4 or many pairs that you think will sit together, they may only fill up some of the chairs, and others will feel too uncomfortable with seating themselves next to people they don’t know. If you do plan on seating your guests this way, make sure to add in at minimum 2 extra tables so there are enough spots that will be open for odd numbers of guests.
Honestly, the best way to go about this is to put in the time to plan ahead. I definitely know that planning your seating chart is one of the most stressful tasks of wedding planning, but it’s better to at least plan out the tables ahead of time for the guests just so there aren’t any logistical issues. Guests need a lot more direction than you think sometimes, and even if you anticipate certain family and friends sitting together, there will likely be some guests that are confused and would prefer to have it planned out for them.
The best way to get this started so it’s not as menial of a task is to start while you’re planning your guest list. Most tables that are 60” will comfortably seat 8 people (at absolute maximum 10), so try chunking your guests together while planning your guest list in groups of 8. You will likely have to do a little bit of moving around when you get closer to the wedding day depending on the RSVPs, but this way you won’t have to start from scratch.
If you need more help figuring out the logistics of your wedding day, let me know what you’re struggling with here. I would love to take some stress off of your hands so you can actually enjoy being engaged and getting ready to get married!
