Wedding Ideas

Creating a seating chart and seating guests at a wedding can be a difficult task regardless of the size of the wedding. You want to make everyone happy but realistically that may be an impossible task. You want to keep family together and you don’t want to separate friends. All couples have been there. But there are different strategies and ways to be able to create your perfect seating chart without making a fuss. Here are some ideas for your wedding on how to handle your seating chart!

DON’T Stress

The most important thing to remember is don’t stress out. We know it may be inevitable but stressing out causes more tension and a small little issue that you find may be created into a huge one and that isn’t the point of planning a wedding. The point is to have fun with family and friends and celebrate your love. Your guests are there for you and a small detail on a seating chart will unlikely affect their day.

Choose a Style

So now that stress is out the way, here are some details to start looking at to create your seating chart. First, you may want to choose whether your seating chart will say solely which table they are sitting at or chair number as well. Now, for those who want to keep it as simple as possible, we suggest you just stick with tables. With this, they have the option to sit where they’d like but at a specific table. If you’d like more organization and have a preference of who sits next to who, then assigning chair numbers may be a good fit for you.

There are some but few who would really like their attention focused somewhere where else and don’t make a seating chart. This may be risky for a large wedding but with smaller weddings with just few friends and family would make life easier for you a bit. Take these ideas for your wedding and make them your own.

Follow a Template

Great, you chose a format! Time for a template. Have your venue send you a layout of the reception area with each table and chair. Make sure their table numbers correspond with what they have given you. Templates or visual displays of a seating chart will make seating charts more fun to figure out and a lot easier. Seating charts can be very important to some families and when you are able to see a visual of how close everyone is going to be sitting next to each other, it can make for a more successful seating arrangement.

Update Your Wedding Planners

Another tip to make sure you follow is always updating your planners! This includes table numbers, seating chart, place cards, and other specific details about the seating for the reception. This is so important for the wedding planning team. When it comes to helping guests find their seats, we would love to be as knowledgeable as we can. As professionals, we need to know every little detail and a list of names by location is perfect to give to your wedding planner. This gives us the ability to be confident in helping your guests and making it a great experience for them.

Don’t Forget About Placement

Seating is normally based around where you want your guests to sit but to really figure out who should sit where is based where you decide to sit with your other half or bridal party. The head/sweetheart table usually belongs in the center of everything or in the front. Everyone wants to be able to see you and besides, it’s your day and you are the center of attention. Close family members and friend’s tables should be the tables closest to you, then the rest of your friends and family should be seated with those that they were invited with as well as some people who they may know. Don’t get us wrong, feel free to mix and match your guests with different groups of people but seating them with friends that they may know is very considerate and can make for a great time.

Show Your Seating Chart Off

Now comes the fun part! Escort cards are where you can get creative and show off all of your hard work! Creatively, you have freedom to present the information however you like. Some decide to make a large list to show where everyone is seated and some like to have single place cards that everyone can pick up and take to their seats. With a long guest lists, I suggest making your list alphabetical order. It may take guests a while to look for their table so making it alphabetical will ease the transition from cocktail hour to reception. A lot of couples choose to display the information by table number. This looks beautifully when presented on a beautiful mirror or framed display. Take these wedding ideas and run with them. There are no wrong answers when it comes to expressing yourself through your wedding.

“Love is when you sit beside someone doing nothing, yet you feel perfectly happy.”