Help, split seating!

I'm going to put reserved signs on the tables for our family. Our reception is all one one room, but I want our family near the front and all the action. I was at a wedding in March and they had two rooms . All the tables in the main room had reserved signs on them.

I've never heard of this before. All I can say is that I'm assigning all of my seats.

How are you wording the signs and making sure family members know those seats are for them?

I would assign tables, not specific seats. I think it would be too confusing to have some assigned but others not.

As a guest I would be somewhat upset with being in a second room. But then it depends. Will it be all decorated up the same as the main room? Will I be able to see the bride/groom/wedding party or is it a seperate room down the hall with a wall in the middle? The later would make me feel unappreciated. If you are able to decorate up the room or have something special for the people in that room that would make it better in my opinion.

How big is your wedding? For our 180 guests we did assigned tables, but not seats at the tables. It's MUCH easier that way. And making the seating chart seriously only took us 20 minutes. It's not rocket science.

Ugh I specifically avoided venues where this was a possibility so I didn't have to divide my guests into 2 groups. Assign all the tables, but not necessarily seats.

As for how to make the wording and signs, just number all the tables. Have escort cards, or a table seating chart that says what table each person is at. Then have signs that say Table #X-Y here and Table #A-B in this room.

We will have about 150 guests (originally were planning on 120 but the guest list got a little away from us). It's isn't so much the work of assigning seats as it is of deliberately placing people in that second room (rather than first come, first serve where people just end up there). It's not an idea situation either way so I'm just having to make the best of it.

I would do table assignments.

I attended a wedding where some people were seated in the other room and it worked out fine. We were not assigned tables (aside from reserved tables for fam/bridal party). It worked out okay. The only slightly awkward part was that after dinner when everyone was dancing (dance floor in the main room) everyone joined from the other room and pulled up chairs, brought their chairs in, etc, so it was hard to keep your seat. As soon as you got up for another drink or the bathroom you came back to a full chair from someone who was in from the other room.

All in all though, I wasn't irritated with any of it ... though I ended up in the main room rather than the second room so I wouldn't know how they felt :/

We're assigning tables for the bridal party and family. All other tables will be open seating. We're putting signs on the tables and letting the family know how to find their table.

I'm not doing assigned seating. I printed reserved signs I put in Picture Silver picture frames I found at the dollar store. The say "Reserved for Bride's Family" "Reserved for Groom's Family" "reserved for wedding party" so my closest will be closest to us.

Reserve seats for your family and bridal party. The rest, leave as open.

Reserve seats for your family and bridal party. The rest, leave as open.

Thanks so much everyone. Kimberly, I like your suggestion! I think I will go with that and just spread the word at the rehearsal dinner since those are the people I'm most concerned about.

I am putting reserved signs for immediate family on 2 tables and leaving the rest open seating. Nobody gets insulted because they were seated at a far away table that way because you didn't assign them

I am always in favor of assigning tables because it makes things much smoother and ensures guests are seated with people they like and know. However, your case might be an exception because assigning people to the "second tier" room may feel like a slap in the face to them, as though they are second class guests. This is not a good thing. For that reason I think it's better to reserve tables for immediate family and wedding party only and let everyone else decide where to sit.

I was at a wedding where this happened - so many people were coming that they had to be seated in two rooms. To avoid upsetting anyone, the couple reserved like 6 tables up front for the "important people" - bridal party and their guests, parents, siblings, grandparents, and aunts/uncles/first cousins. The rest was just open. It worked out well because everyone was up dancing the whole night anyway. People only remained seated for the dinner.

I remember you bringing this issue up earlier. Split receptions are target rich environments for people who are not VIPs, are late, and/or want to take offense. The trick is to make it a first come, first served dynamic. Your biggest fear is that people closest to the door and furthest from the sweetheart table will assume that they aren't as important as other guests. That's why you have to reserve the tables near the sweetheart/dais for the VIP guests and leave the rest of the available seats on a first come-first served basis. You do that via nicely printed and/or framed "reserved" signs that are placed on the tables in the main room. When your guests come into the reception, they will immediately realize that there are no escort cards (because that's the first things guests look for after they enter a reception venue), so you should make a nice "choose a seat" sign and place it where the escort cards would have been placed if you had done assigned tables. After dinner, everyone will end up wherever they want to be anyway. The world will not end. People will socialize, dance, eat, and drink. If the food, drink, and entertainment are good, that's what they'll remember. A few people may grumble, but that's the way it goes at any wedding.

Thanks for this post, so helpful for me too. While I am quite a ways out, our venue has 3 rooms for 120 guests (my mother says, "oh, I don't like that" and "that is stupid" and "well, that is just weird" - but then again I told her our wedding isn't the traditional one-room ballroom wedding either, nor is she paying one cent, so suck it up honey, hehe). I love the ideas about having reserved seating for VIP guests and the rest can choose their seating. LOVE the choose a seat sign that was mentioned. I will definitely have to save this post so I don't forget for when the time is closer.