Wedding Reception Seating

One of the most trying tasks in wedding reception seating is being diplomatic. Yes, there is a certain unspoken wedding reception seating etiquette to follow but that goes out the window if both sets of parents are straining against how you want to seat your friends and family. Therefore, you need to come up with some sort of compromise.

Of course, following etiquette rules, there are a few givens when it comes to wedding reception seating. Take the head table for instance. Of course, the bride and groom are front and center at this particular table. Joining the bride and groom are all the groomsmen and bridesmaids. It is totally up to you as to the order and arrangements of your attendants.

A Wedding Reception Seating Game Plan

After the head table is laid out, next you have all the friends and family in order of importance or who you deem important let’s say. Obviously the parents and grandparents should have first dibs on the next best seating arrangements. As it’s your wedding, you can create a wedding reception seating chart to help you out. For this chart, there are these pieces of information that you will need:

1. The list of guests who are coming to the reception.
2. A list of any guests who have special needs such as children in attendance or someone in a wheelchair.
3. The configuration of the tables in your reception location.

Once you have this information, you can then adequately start plotting who is going to sit where. Keep in mind, if you are dealing in multiple sets of parents (i.e. step parents), you will want to create perhaps two versions of your wedding reception seating plans. Having a “plan b” to fall back on should one scenario not be acceptable is a good move.

There are a few other wedding reception rules to consider. If there are some children in attendance, you have two options. First, you can seat them with their parents. Second, you might want to consider renting a side room to your reception location and hire a professional babysitter or entertainment for a few hours. It’s a good investment because the kids can be a part of your wedding but they won’t become bored or ruin their parent’s time.

If any elderly are attending or there are people on crutches or a wheel chair, you should place their wedding reception seatings close to accessible travel areas to the bathroom, food buffet or other strategic locations. Also, place people together that you know will get along. There is an art to wedding reception seating; luckily you only have one time to do it up right.