While assigning seating at your wedding reception venue isn’t mandatory, most couples do prefer to create a wedding seating chart for their big day. Assigned seating, whether sit-down dining or buffet, often makes things easier for you and your guests. As seating plans not only ensure that each table is filled to its desired capacity, they also allow for any couples and families to easily dine together and can make any dietary requirements easier for venue staff if you are having a plated service!
Firstly, discuss with your wedding planner or our in-house planner, Michael, regarding your chosen reception venue area and number of guests to best plan your ideal layout. Taking into consideration not just your dining tables but also any dancefloors, photobooth stations etc that you wish to or have booked, in case these will affect the setup too.
Will you have a top table or not? Will you be having round tables or rectangles? How many? Or if rectangular, you could even opt for a U-shaped reception?
Once you know the layout of your wedding reception, and how many your tables will accommodate, draw up a template or list of each table starting with your head table or top table first (if you are having) and so on. A simple spreadsheet or word document is all you need, however there are some great user-friendly online seating planning tools that you can use for free, or if you’re more hands on – even a sticky note plan can do the trick; using post-it notes for your guests names will make any do-overs and edits effortless!
Once, and only once, your guests have RSVP’d can you begin the fun of deciding who sits where…
The head or top table at your wedding can be a great way to acknowledge those with special roles. Alternatively you can choose for it to be only yourselves as newlyweds. It is entirely up to you whether you wish to include your Best Man & Maid of honour at the head/ top table and/or extend the table to seat your parents too. If not, your parents are best seated on the next best table in your seating plan.
Traditionally, your parents would share a table at the reception with any of your siblings and/ or grandparents as they’ll most likely want to share in your celebration together. If you’re dealing with divorced parents, this can be tricky as well as any other complex family dynamics, in this case consider having two tables equally close to the head table to accommodate so that no one feels left out or uncomfortable.
A good rule of thumb when it comes to successfully planning your seating arrangements is to organise your guests in groups. Such as friends that already know each other and get along such as work friends, high school friends or taking into consideration your guests age, interests and backgrounds will help you piece together the puzzle of your seating plan.
Do you have many children as guests attending your wedding? One great strategy here is to seat them together at a separate ‘kids’ table, where you can also have some exciting and engaging activities and crafts to keep them occupied! Try to avoid placing the kids table far away from where their parents will be sitting as younger ones may feel a little anxious if they’re too far away.
If this all seems too much or too formal for you, fret not! Feel free to simply allocate specific tables to your guests and allow them to choose their own seating at that table. This way they’ll still have some direction of where they’ll be seated yet are free to make their own choice.
Once you’ve decided on your table layout allocated seating for all of your attendees, don’t forget to have even more fun and get creative with their place cards and presenting your hard work in a stunning (and clear) seating chart to display at your venue too. All the while tying it into your chosen theme whether it be rustic or boho and colour scheme to match!
Call us today on +357 26949696 or Contact Us, we would love to help!
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