Assigned Seats or Let Them Choose

I think guest like to choose their own seats. I talked to a lot of my guests and they agreed. It gives people a chance to mingle and meet new people.

I’ve only been to one open seating wedding and it was terrible. We put our things down at a spot, then went to the Buffett, by the time we got back (with a plate of food), our seats were taken and there was no open 2 spots anywhere else. We, and other guests, ended up eating standing with plates in our hands like it was a picnic.

The wedding was beautiful otherwise but this experience is the only thing that I think about at the wedding . It’s a shame. Assign tables or have some sort of system but free for all is not fun for most people.

When we were doing the big wedding we were going to have assigned seating for the wedding party and then the rest would get to choose their seat. However, we recently decided we are going to elope and get married legally with a small group of family and a few friends. Then, we’re going to go out to dinner and maybe have my brother make our wedding cake or buy a premade one from a bakery.

I am having around 60 people. Family, friends and his co workers. I am letting people sit themselves. The main reason is because my RSVP cards did not have the guest names on them and I did not realize this till too late. So now I have all the RSVP cards coming back with no names. Plus with having people seat themselves insures I am not being overly petty or vindictive to the mean wives club. All of his highschool friends wives who are horrible.

I think it makes for less hassle. You know where to go and can get up and mingle when you want to. We are mixing our guests a bit.

We’re assigning tables and letting people choose their own seats at the table for our wedding in April. I’ve had a number of our guests already ask me ahead of time if they’re sitting with so and so, which is why we want to assign tables so those that haven’t seen each other since college for example can definitely sit with their college friends during the dinner portion of the night. I’ve been to open seating weddings and it was a nightmare as described by previous people - I’ve never heard of anyone wishing they weren’t told where to sit so I’m surprised so many people think being told where to sit is upsetting 🤷🏻‍♀️

We are having almost 350 people at our reception almost all of them family and very close friends we live in a small rural community and well everyone knows everyone and I'm not doing a seating plan or assigning tables

We hadn’t even thought this far but our wedding planner recommended to at least have assigned tables. We have to pay for each table set up (plus .50 for each chair) and don’t want to end up with a seat or two open at each table. I also have some family that have 3-5 people in their party and don’t want to end up splitting their families up if there aren’t 5 opened seats at our tables that seat 8. We also have a few guests who I know would be uncomfortable trying to find a seat in the sea of our families they’ve not met before. For us it’s not really about guest A not liking guest C we just need to utilize the tables we have. We will still set up an extra table for those who are bound to not RSVP (rude. Lol.). I’m also adding this on our RSVP’s in hopes that both of our nonplanning families get the hint. Lol!

I was also considering open seating, but the points here are definitely good ones!

View Quoted Comment What if a Goup of 4 walks in and no table has four chairs cause they are all full. If I had to
eat at a different table then my fiancé.

My vote: assigned seats.