Guidelines for Assigned Seating at Weddings
This week, we have shared the types of seating for brides and grooms at weddings and the options for guest seating at weddings. In this final part of our wedding seating series, we are sharing guidelines and tips to help your clients with their seating assignments.
Advice to help brides and grooms with guest seating assignments:
- Family members who don’t get along including divorced parents should be seated on opposite sides of the room with their own friends.
- Guests with similar interests should be seated together such as coworkers and close groups of friends.
- Seat older guests away from the speakers and dance floor.
- If tables need to be removed after dinner to accommodate dancing, assign those tables to younger guests.
- Children under age 4 are typically seated with their parents. Older children can be seated at their own table together (but separate from parents) if they have a chaperone.
Request a copy of the final table and seating assignments from your clients prior to the event. The caterer or venue needs to know the number of seats and place settings per table if your client has chosen to assign tables. As a planner, it’s important to count the number of chairs per table before guests arrive to be sure they match the number on the list from your client. It can be an awkward situation when there are more guests trying to sit at a table than there are seats. By confirming the correct number of chairs at each table, you avoid the embarrassment of adding extra place settings as uncomfortable guests wait.
Unfortunately, you could run into seating issues if guests show up at the event but did not RSVP or if the bride and groom made mistakes on the seating chart or escort cards.
Have you had issues and challenges with guest seating at weddings?
I usually recommend seating families with young children closer to the bathroom or next to open spaces. In that way the kids can have space to move around and those with babies can have access to the bathroom easily.
That is great Lorraine. Hank you for sharing!
The counting of the seats is very important and something that we do at all of our events, especially when there is assigned seating. There are times when guests may move to a different table to sit with someone else, which throws off the table seating. Guests will arrive to a table that is already full. Making sure to have a paper copy of the seating arrangement on hand, to fix these situation if and when they arise is important.
Thanks for sharing Stacey. Great tips and advice!