Seating Chart Preparation for Weddings

I came across an article I thought would be helpful to share with anyone planning their Wedding this season! Enjoy!

Placing the Wedding Party!

One of the easiest places to start (you don’t want to get overwhelmed the first day!) is to go ahead and place your bridal party. There are several options to choose from when seating your party. If you’re a more traditional bride, a rectangular head table — where the bride and groom sit in the center and face the reception hall — is a great choice.

In another more non-traditional arrangement, the bride and groom sit by themselves at what’s called a “sweetheart table,” and the rest of the bridal party sits at tables near them. When seating your bridal party, think about whether their dates would be more comfortable sitting together at one table or spread out at different tables with people they already know.

Placing the Guests

You’ll want to start working on the seating arrangement for your guests as soon as you have a rough head count for the big day. You may choose to put the seating plan together before all of your RSVPs have arrived, but be prepared to make a few minor changes if you do.

First you’ll want to ask the staff at your reception site about the types of tables they provide. From there, you can decide what sort of layout you’d like to use — whether it be circular, a horseshoe, scattered, etc. Find out how many seats fit at each table and work from there.

It’s important to be very mindful of where you place your friends and family members — if you place them only with people they know then you could actually discourage mingling at the wedding. At the other end of the spectrum, placing all strangers at a table could make your guests rather uncomfortable. You should try to strike a balance by arranging guests so that they’ll know a few people at their table. You might also want to think about interests and age groups of the guests at each table — it will be much easier for them to keep a conversation with guests they have something in common with.

Now, the ever-challenging task of seating singles! Wedding etiquette generally frowns upon designating a single’s table, so this may take some creativity on your part. Try to seat groups of singles among couples they know — it will keep them from getting unwanted attention while also allowing them to see they’re not the only single person there.

Placing Children

While kids aged 7 to 14 will be perfectly content at a separate table, seating those under 7 will present another challenge. Your best option might be a separate room with childcare provided. If you’d like children to be in the same room as adults, however, try setting an area off to the side that both feeds kids and keeps them busy — like tables with coloring books/crayons or other crafts. If you suspect that a guest will need a high chair, ask the venue if they can provide one; if they can’t, tell the parents so they can plan ahead.

Final touches

You should have your seating chart firmed up at least a week before the wedding. That will give you time to make up your escort cards (cards that are used to tell your guests which table they’re at) and table numbers — or better yet, names! For example, if you are having a garden wedding you may name the tables after different flowers like “hydrangea,” “peony,” or “sweet pea.”

To help your guests find their table, you should have the table name/number displayed prominently on the tables and create a name place card for each guest. If there are any special menu requests (i.e. vegan or gluten-free guests), you can indicate them with a special symbol on the place card.

When you are only assigning tables and not seats, you can simply place your escort cards on a table at the entrance to the wedding reception.  When you assign guests tables and seats, you will additionally need place cards waiting on the table for each guest.  (Tip: Keep in mind that you can incorporate the wedding favor into the place card as well!)

After preparing your seating chart, you’ll also want to provide a copy for your reception location, so you can go over any potential issues with the site manager.

We know, we know: It’s a lot of work. But there are certainly tools available to help you! Above all, putting a lot of thought into the seating chart is a good way to make your guests feel special and comfortable.