The dreaded seating chart. It seems like the impossible task for your wedding. But never fear! We have a few tips to make this dreaded task a breeze for you. While it can be difficult to work around complicated relationships, we have a few things you should know before making your chart.
- You don’t necessarily need a seating chart. Many couples choose to forgo making the complicated decisions and have open seating. This allows guests to choose where they sit and ensures no drama over where people end up eating. If this is something you are considering, remember you will need to allow for extra seating. There is bound to be a group of seven sitting at a table that can hold eight, and no one will want to be at the extra seat. You should add about 15% seating to make up for the tables that don’t get filled completely. This seating style is great for buffet style meals, but for plated meals, this can make it hard for the serving staff. We recommend using open seating for buffet meals only!
- Know your sizes. For a 60-inch round table, eight people is perfect. Ten is the max amount that can fit, but the place settings are pretty crowded. Six is the lowest amount of people you should have, or the table will feel too empty. For a 72-inch round, ten is preferred, with twelve being the max and eight as the minimum. For a six-foot rectangular table, six people works the best, but you can add two more if you add endcaps.
- Know not everyone will be able to fit at a table. It is bound to happen that you’ll have eleven college friends that won’t all fit at one table. That’s ok! Depending on the size of your tables, you can split them into two groups, and if there is still extra room, find a pair or smaller group of people that has things in common with those at the table.
- Use your cards. There are different cards you can use so guests know exactly where they are supposed to sit. Let’s break it down.
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- Place cards- They are placed at the guests assigned seat so when they get to their table, they know exactly where they should be. If you have different food options, you may put a color dot or other marker on the place card, so the serving staff knows exactly who has each dish.
- Escort cards- These are typically placed at the entrance of the reception on a table. They tell the guests which table they are assigned to.
- Escort board/Seating chart- This is placed near the entrance of the reception and lists each table, and the guests seated at that table.
- Don’t have a singles table. It can be a bit embarrassing to be banished to the singles table. Rather, put your solo guests spread throughout the seating with their friends and family. Arranging guests so that everyone has someone they know helps to make every guest feel valued at your wedding. Not everyone has to know everyone, but putting people with someone they know, and then organizing by age, interest, etc. can make all guests happy and gives them something to talk about.
- What about the bridal party? You have a few options for the bridal party. You can choose to sit with the bridal party (typically at the head of the room). You could also choose to sit at a sweetheart table (a table for just the bride and groom) or with parents, and have the bridal party sit at a separate table. Or you could have the bridal party scattered throughout the guests. Don’t forget about the bridal party’s dates though! They will most likely bring their significant others, so make sure they have a place to be as well!
- Keep the kiddos in mind. If you are going to have children at the wedding, you can choose to have a kids table. Filling it with wedding themed coloring pages and activities is a great idea! If there will not be many children at your wedding, putting them with their parents works well.
- Don’t forget the other stationery. Now that you’ve assigned your seating arrangements, you will also need table numbers. We love a coordinating table number to the menu cards, the escort and/or place cards, the bar menu, the ceremony programs, the monogrammed napkins, etc. All of these paper details coordinated with your design elevate the overlook look and feel of the wedding.
- Focus on the positive. While this may not be the most exciting task of planning your wedding, it is a necessary one. Planning early means you won’t have to stress about it in the week before your wedding when you should be hammering out final details. And while the process may seem complex, at the end of the day, people will only be at the tables for an hour when they eat which isn’t a lot of time in the grand scheme of the wedding. The rest of the time will be spent dancing and having fun! In the end, it will all work out.