Seating Plans

Congratulations! You are in the home stretch of your wedding planning. There are just a few more things to do, like seating plans for your wedding reception. Seating plans are almost an art form. How do you place every guest without stepping on too many toes or combining clashing personalities?

You will want to consult with your wedding planner or event coordinator at the facility where your reception will be held. The first things you want to determine before mapping your seating plans is where the cake table will be in additions to the buffet lines, gifts, guest book table, the DJ or band and any other entities that will likely take up some floor space in the reception hall.

Once the placement of everything else is nailed down, you need to determine where the main table with the bride, groom and attendants will be. From there, you should create a diagram of all the tables and their exact positioning. Having a seating planner with all of the elements mapped out will help you determine where your parents and grandparents go in relations to Great Aunt Gertrude and your boss from work.

Take your seat planner guide and make multiple copies of it. You will be going through several drafts of seating plans until right before the event. You may even have to create several different scenarios to come up with workable wedding reception seating plans. In fact, if you break up your different scenarios, you can label them. Choose your top table wedding seating plan first.

Be sure to take into account anyone who is planning to bring their children. You will want to scope out those tables in a corner or near a bathroom. Also take into account anyone with a handicap. Their placement will affect the wedding table seating plans too. And of course, if you know that Uncle Mike despises his cousin Jane, you will have to manipulate seating plans to ensure that they are nowhere near each other. Taking into account all of those family dynamics, the children and special needs will help you create a top table seating plan.

Here are some final thoughts: Be sure to find out if the tables are going to be round or rectangular. This will greatly affect seating plans for the reception. In addition, don’t forget those table seating diagrams. These are great tools for shuffling people around until you reach a pleasing plan for your seating arrangements.