Do people still do head tables?

Head tables are quickly becoming a thing of the past as people have become more conscious of social etiquette and guest experience. Modern couples are choosing sweetheart tables for themselves and seating their wedding parties with their spouses/families. Kings tables have also become popular; which are long tables for the couple, the wedding party, and the wedding party’s spouses/plus ones. Tbh, I don’t think I’ve seen a head table at a wedding since 2010!

I personally had a head table where my bridesmaids and groomsmen sat WITH their plus ones/spouses. i think its weird to separate them so i just placed them together. i didn't do a sweetheart table because it would have cost me extra and i didn't want that haha

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I think this is what I am doing as well - sitting us together - but not splitting up SOs

I've been to over two dozen weddings in the 15 years I've been an adult and I've only ever seen one head table. Everyone else either had sweetheart tables or kings tables where the SOs of the wedding party say with them.

Every group has different traditions so what is common for one is unheard of for another. We have only ever seen head tables in the movies. Our families only recently started serving a full meal instead of just cake and coffee, so the couples at a full meal in our social circles will be seated at a sweetheart table or a king’s table with the wedding party significant others sitting with them.

Every wedding I have been to and every wedding I have been a bridesmaid for (7 of them) has had a head table. I had never seen or heard of not having one until I joined weeding wire.

I’ve seen sweetheart tables a lot. That’s what we’re doing. I don’t think it’s fair to make someone’s SO sit alone while their partner sits at a head table with you. I think it’s polite to do a head table or have partners sit there also. Plus while your party won’t complain about sitting apart from their SO to be polite to you they would probably rather sit with their partner

I’ve seen a head table at a wedding once in the last decade, and I happened to be in the wedding party. I luckily was seated next to another bridesmaid that I was friends with, but not all of the wedding party was lucky enough to know the others. They just got to make awkward small talk over dinner while their significant others sat together, also making awkward small talk. And for what? To have photos of us all eating together?

I have literally never seen a head table in real life. Every wedding I’ve experienced has had a sweetheart table.

I have been to 3 weddings in the past year & all of them had head tables with their bridal party, while SO were seated nearby at another table. How many of the bridal party stay seated after you eat? So the bridal party is together for 30 mins & after that, people are socializing, dancing, etc. I think my daughter & her fiancé want a traditional head table…although that could change, as we have about 3 months until the wedding. As a guest, I really like seeing the head table before the wedding party heads out into different directions!

I've seen a few head tables out of the 50 or so weddings I've attended in my life. Sweetheart tables are much more common these days.

When I was a junior bridesmaid in my aunts wedding, I sat at their head table. It was a Filipino culturally traditional wedding.


I would do whatever makes you and your fiancé happy! Do you want a head table? Go for it. Would you rather get a few moments to yourself at your own table? Whatever floats your boat. Good luck!


Ps. I did not sit down at my sweetheart table at my wedding. We had a buffet and I ended up sitting w my girlfriends at a random table 😭

Ok I the wedding party will have it's own table plus the plus 1 will sit among the guest I've never heard that before either

Def seat your wedding party with their dates - it’s become pretty common to do that due to general acknowledgment of the fact that being a date of someone in the WP and getting split up for dinner sucks, especially if you don’t know other people at the wedding very well. You can do a head table and still keep the WP with their dates - I don’t know that it’s true that no one does head tables anymore - but that setup does make it harder to keep couples together.


We had a big WP (10 BMs, 10 GM) and almost all of them had SO’s who attended, so we ended up doing two long king’s tables for the WP plus our immediate families and a sweetheart table for us. It worked pretty well - I can’t find a photo that shows both tables super clearly, but this is the view of one of them from our sweetheart table. We had two of these going down the middle of the room with a few standard round tables on either side (you can see a couple of the rounds off to the right here). Each king’s table sat about 20 people.

It's polite to seat people with their dates. However that works out in your particular configuration is variable, which is why sweetheart tables and kings tables have become so much more popular.

Our bridal party includes one groomsman with a newborn baby, and one groomsman with three young girls (ages 5, 8 and 10ish). We're planning on a head table without S/Os and kids. The newborn's mom is going to be seated with the groomsman's parents (baby's grandparents), and the mom of the 3 kiddos will be at a table with other guests that know both her and the kids. Everyone's S/O knows at least a few other people at the wedding, so I think people will be fine. But we're going to ask both groomsmen about this plan just in case. I figure this is how it goes when you open the wedding to kids, but also don't want three children and a newborn at the head table. Does that sound unreasonable?

I think it depends on what's normal for your friends and family as well as how well the SOs of your bridal party know other people at the wedding. I've seen traditional head tables done as well as sweetheart tables, so it's really your call. If the significant others will know some people there and won't feel awkward not sitting near their partners then it wouldn't be terrible to have a head table. In the weddings I've been to with head tables, most of the significant others seemed to be friends so it wasn't a big deal. Our bridal party has some SOs who won't know anyone else, so I'd feel bad making them sit alone with a bunch of strangers.