Hosts/hostesses

The bride and groom are the hosts. You will have a table near the front with placecards for guests to locate their assigned tables. Typically the dj will announce tables to go up to fill plates. If guests do not dance, they will mingle and chat.


Speaking as a guestbook attendant when I was a kid, some people will sign as they enter the ceremony and others refuse to touch it even when it is passed around to the reception.

Hi Davida! I agree with you that the staff you hired will be able to handle guests going to the buffet and the seating chart is perfect 👌 it is good to confirm with your staff how they will conduct the buffet. I’ve been to weddings where the DJ either makes an announcement or a staff member came to our table to let us know when to go to the buffet.
We did have relatives we privately asked ahead of time to watch out for elderly guests to help them find their seats and such. Hope this helps ❤️

Unless you have a whole bunch of much older guests, your emcee and DOC should be able to handle all of those tasks you listed. I've never been to a wedding with hosts

I would assume that your event staff should be able to take care of those things

Hostesses are a very good idea somewhere around 150 guests and up, when the few waitstaff free, catering service room captain, or MC cannot easily see or signal each other across a sea of tables with people standing and moving around. Often it means taking one senior waitstaff off of a group of tables, and giving them more of a Maitre'd or room captain status. So you pay for one more waitstaff to direct things, something many small caterers cut to be cost competitive, but really need for smooth service. That person can also keep an eye on stocking the buffet, and small issues. Adding on another layer of family or coordinator is no where near as effective as staffing waitstaff with the caterer to make sure they supply this, a cost figured in to your overall staffing. A person to deal with the too much to drink issues, too. Your size wedding, it is an option, and during Covid seating, if folks are really spread out, at a smaller number.

You won't need any extra people hired to do those duties. The event staff you've mentioned will already take care of those things.

The vendors that you’ve hired should be plenty.

I don't feel like you need to hire people to seat your guests. I would have a seating chart visible so people don't have issues finding their seat if you're worried about it being chaotic - but I agree that the vendors you already have take care of announcing. If you have a day of coordinator, that will def be taken care of!

I don't think you need that many "hosts". I mean, technically, the bride and groom and their families are the hosts! My fiance's mom insists that we need ushers at least for the ceremony (she's very traditional), and that I can understand, especially if you have elderly guests who might actually need a hand getting to their seats, but you don't need ushers at the reception directing tables. If you want to make sure everyone doesn't charge the buffet table all at once, find a creative way to decide which table goes first. At my fiance's sister's wedding, they had movie trivia questions, and the first table with the correct answer to each one got to go up next. Either that, or you could just go in numerical order.

View Quoted Comment I might have to steal that trivia idea. That sounds fun.

I’ve never heard of hiring a host/hostess for a wedding. Your DOC will take care of everything you mentioned.