Is a seating chart necessary?

Yup! You don't wish grandma to end up by the speakers because she didn't move fast enough

Yes. It's a lot of work, like everything involved in hosting a wedding, but yes.

You can just assign tables instead of individual seats

We are having a smaller wedding with a buffet style dinner and we are assigning tables not seats. This way we can ensure all the families and couples have seats together without any awkward searching but less work for me.

It's not that much work and compared to the discomfort and inconvenience to your guests, it's nothing.

Please assign tables

Suggestions on how to do it? Will people look at the chart? Or should i get place cards with everyones name

Either is fine.

Either one works well

Pinterest has a lot of ideas for how to do seating charts, most guest will know how to look at a chart and see what table they sit at. I would just make the table numbers flow.

We're reserving the front tables (2 for his family and 2 for mine) and leaving everything else open. This might change, but that's our plan for now!

A couple weekends ago I was talking to friends of ours who got married in October. They had a couple leave their wedding because the woman had an anxiety attack during the chaos of trying to find seats (they only had reserved tables for family). I ended up at the kids table. Just do a seating chart!

Emily, my opinion only, that makes the rest of your guests feel less important than your vips. Also causes confusion, as in who is "family" and who is not?

Not to mention the free-for-all for the remainder of seats which is stressful at best.

And there you go, what Kelly said!!!

@nonna, signs will say "reserved for family of groom/bride", not VIP or anything like that. And (honest question, no snark) wouldn't it make guests feel less important to be assigned a back/corner table instead of being able to pick from what's available? That's why I don't want to do a seating chart... I don't want to give people better/worse tables and have them question why.

I'm not being snarky either, Emily, just disagreeing and giving you first hand experience advice.

Reserved = vip. You're important.

The rest = Find your own way, hopefully you sit together if you're a couple.

And trust me, I have, with all my social anxiety and awkwardness, no problem walking up to strangers and asking can we sit with them. I introduce myself and with some luck, we enjoy our dinner at the very least. Some of my best times at weddings have been with strangers.

Emily, I would rather be assigned a back table with FH and people I know then have to walk around looking for empty seats and end up at a table of people I don't know, don't like, or asking people to move seats so FH and I can sit together. It's a lot less anxiety and stress on your guests just assigning tables

Sitting charts (at least assigned tables, if not seats) are an absolute necessity to ensure that families and couples can stay together. Your top priority for your reception should be guest comfort, and a seating chart is something that only costs time not money (ok, maybe a little money, but it doesn't have to be pinterest crazy expensive).

If I went to a wedding and couldn't immediately find a seat for me and FH together I would leave (and would not send a gift). I can make friends with random ASSIGNED strangers, but the anxiety of walking up to a table of strangers would just be too much.

@nonna Oh I didn't mean you were being snarky, just referring to my own comment.

Most of the weddings I've been to have been the way I mentioned, so I suppose it's never bothered me because I've never known another way! The last one I went to they had enough tables that FH and I actually got one to ourselves!

The only time I've been to one with assigned seats, people switched anyway. That's just my experience! I am also socially awkward and don't necessarily like sitting with strangers, but it's never bothered me at weddings because I've always thought that's just the way it works there.

@Emily--please do change that plan. Your guests will have a much more pleasant experience if they have a guaranteed place to sit and someone spent at least a bare minimum amount of time and effort into making sure they are seated with compatible people. Nobody wants to be back in middle school asking "mind if I sit here?"