Alternate ideas to seating chart/escort cards

I have not heard of doing that, but it could work well. You'd have to make sure your BP are all on the same page with how it would work and how they'd find someone's seat.

What about escort cards and place cards? Escort cards tell you what table you are at, place cards are already on the table and tell you which seat is yours!

We had escort cards that led you to the table, but we still had place cards at the table assigning seats. Those aren't mutually exclusive.

I've never seen/done anything like this, but I think it might look strange and put a lot of stress on your wedding party. Now instead of crowding around a seating chart, they're going to be crowding around your wedding party trying to figure out where to sit? Also, I've never really seen people "crowd" around a seating chart. People sort of come in gradually, not all at once, so I don't think it's really anything to be concerned about.

If your bridal party are the helpful, outgoing types, then it sounds nice - very personal.

@staci - that is exactly what I proposed we do. He thinks it's too much to have placecards and escort cards. Plus, he has it in his head that having people escorted is much more formal then having them hunt down their assigned seats. He's a groomzilla I swear. @VB our cocktail hour will only be 20 minutes or so. They likely won't just trickle in. So I could see his point with the seating chart. We went to a wedding a few years ago where people were lined up and crowding around it. Totally tainted his opinion of charts. And with the personal escorts, we'd have 7 of them so no one would have to wait long. The more I think about it, the more I like his plan, actually! Our bp is awesome and I must admit that, thanks to ww, we haven't leaned on them for anything. They're a little annoyed that we haven't! So, I couldn't see them being too upset about doing this

We avoided the "crowding around the seating chart" in a very simple way:

Write an ALPHABETICAL listing of names and table assignments.

I've always wondered when I've gone to weddings, why someone didn't do this, so when it was my turn in June, that's what I did, and it worked *beautifully*.

We divided into 2 poster frames, and there was NEVER a line - people loved it, because it's exponentially faster to search for your last name and read, than to hover over a table to look through a table of little cards, but also you don't have to be right at the table to see your name if you do them on a larger-format.

Of course, this means writing the list out a day or two before the wedding, not a week before, but I did it the night before, on the floor of my hotel room... not a big deal. It was worth it! We used faux-wood plastic poster frame $16 @ Michaels crafts w/ black posterboard $3.

ETA: we did not prescribe specific chairs/seats at each table, as we did 8 per 60" round, so if an extra person showed up, there was still room to fit them at the table last minute. We put a note in the lower right corner of the board that said "If you don't find your name on the list, please talk to one of the Bridal Party members to help you get a seat!"

I am not a huge fan of this idea and I have never seen it. Does your bridal party actually want to do this?

I think this could totally work as long as your BP is excited about it. It will definitely add to the formality of the event, so if that is something you want, I say go for it. You will probably have some guests that decide to seat themselves anyway, and walk around to each table until they find their spot.

ETA: We'll be doing the alphabetical list like @Rebecca, and this is what our coordinator recommended because it speeds things up so much. He suggested we do this whether we chose to assign seats or just assign tables.

To piggy back on what Sarah said, I think some people would try sitting themselves. So they would be wandering around looking at all the name tags. It could possibly work though if you bridal party is up for it.

With the trickling in, I was just at a wedding at the beginning of the month where everyone was lined up to do the guestbook and get their escort cards from an old library card catalog, so I can see where it may be an issue with just 20 minutes. Do you have a DOC or a planner from the venue that might be able to help instead of your party? May seem more like a waitress or waiter than your BP.

I think that if you have your BP escorting people to their seats, then you'll have people crowding at the door anyways, waiting for someone from the BP to come, look them up on their chart and take them to their table, and then come back for the next couple. If everyone has to wait for someone to come escort them, isn't that going to slow things down too?

Also - have him watch a wedding movie, lol. Right now I'm thinking of 4 weddings and a funeral, you can see them go check out the seating chart or the escort card table, and it never looks crowded, lol.

In general I like both your idea of escort cards+place cards, AND having two seating charts like Rebecca said. If you don't want to do colours you could do little icons or a big initial (P for pork and so on) to help servers.

As for how to make sure everyone gets their proper meal, just ask the caterer if they *want* you to do anything, and then do what they ask, since they will have optimized the process already.

@Mandygurl - we do have a doc at the venue and will see if they're able to do it but I don't think our bp would mind. We've been easy on them! lol

@VC - That's exactly what I told fh. He envisions having someone sitting at a table with a clipboard who will not escort but will tell guests their table #'s. As well, having 6 people at the doors with clipboards who will personally escort guests to their tables. So, realistically, the line up wouldn't be horrid. Possibly not any better then if we had a seating chart or escort cards, but, no worse! We only have about 110 guests to seat (our bp will be escorting and our immediate family will be doing a few quick pics post ceremony and we can tell them all what tables they're at). I guess we will talk to our bp at the rehearsal next week and gauge their enthusiasm them. Worse case scenario, we will just do escort cards as well as placecards. I've hit the IDGAF mode long ago. He, however, still gives plenty of fucks lol

I went to a wedding where they did that and it was kinda difficult to find our seats. Could you do that and also a board which assigns people to their tables to expedite the process? Maybe that's a compromise since they can find their table listed and don't need the extra time to find the seat at the chart?