Is it really that big a deal? Seating Issues...

Wow! What a hairy situation. I would suggest reserving seating for immediate family members, elderly, and those with health issues. If there's children invited under the age of let's say 10, is there a part on your venue you could maybe hire someone to babysit and arrange activities for them during the ceremony? Just some ideas..good luck!

Welcome to WW! The girls on here are awesome, but they will tell it like it is. If you have to invite that many people and can't cut the guest list, can you do half sitting and half standing? Ideally they would all be sitting, but you have to work with what you are dealt. You have to have at least some chairs for people such as grandparents. You should be able to make it work!

Yeah, you'll probably get some flak for this, but honestly? If I were a guest to a short ceremony, I would have no trouble standing.

I have a similar situation. I didn't realize how big of a faux pas it was until I came onto WW. I'm going to be working with my venue to provide as much seating for the ceremony as I possibly can. I agree with the PP to reserve seating for immediate family and elderly guests.

I have the same situation. But the hotel let us have the ceremony there no extra fee, and it's one of the best rated places in my city to get married, so how could I turn that down?? Even before I came on WW, I kept asking the venue guy over and over if it's rude or weird and he said it's not for short ceremonies.

What's done is done, hopefully the rest of our weddings will be awesome and no one will even remember/ care.

My brother's wedding was standing only, except my grandmother. It was only 13 minutes so it wasn't bad.

Just make sure you let people know what happened so they don't wear the wrong shoes for standing. Also this way they have a choice if they decide they don't want to attend a ceremony that they have to stand the whole time for.

You'll have to be careful to plan reeeeally well so there's no delays, and try to provide a seating area for guests to wait in beforehand. Otherwise a 20-minute ceremony can easily translate to an hour or more on your feet. Figure guests arrive 15-30 minutes early, there's maybe a 10-minute delay for whatever reason, then the ceremony takes 20 minutes. You're already at 45-50 minutes on your feet. Then you wait for everyone to file out and walk to the cocktail/reception area where you have to find the escort table, figure out the cards, find your table....and finally you get to sit.

ETA - yeah, it stinks your venue wasn't upfront on the seating issue. I totally sympathize.

I don't think its bad to ask people to stand as long as the ceremony is short. As stated by others I would reserve seating for immediate family, elderly and those who can't stand for long periods of time. I would not include information about it being a "standing room only ceremony" on your invitations. If you have a wedding website, you can put the information there. Also please do not ask people to email to reserve seats. People will reach out to you if there is a concern about standing for the length of the ceremony.

The only issue I see is that some people might not be able to see. I'm not very tall and in a crowd there is zero chance I would be able to see to the front of a room. Is there a way you could have a platform for you and your officiant? That way more people would have a good view? I would absolutely have some seats and perhaps just go over your guests list yourselves you can probably at least estimate how many people would need seats. If it were me I would still have a first row of seats for your VIPs and then however many more for those who cannot stand for the whole time. Also perhaps consider that some people who need seats may want/need someone to sit with them. I wouldn't want my grandmother seated and no one with her in case she needed help, for example.

I thought I'd post some photos... this one shows the venue's chairs, they are quite wide and bulky which is why I originally thought renting folding chairs would be doable

This is the ceremony courtyard with rented folding chairs. You could see why I thought it would fit. The rows aren't even filled out, but the coordinator claims this photo is misleading and that the chairs take up standing space so it will only accommodate all seated... It's hard to tell, but in person they have this space set up with tables (restaurant guests can dine in the courtyard) and I honestly didn't think it was a problem. I'm okay with 20-25 people standing... not okay with 50 people standing!

*repeat post*

Lastly, this is an example of a wedding in the venue with standing guests. I'm not sure how I feel now....

PS. this venue does A TON of weddings. I've heard nothing but amazing things from people personally AND online. The dining area seats 95 so it made sense when they said they could fit 100 in the ceremony space. I do feel like they purposely left out the STANDING part of the description, but at this point I don't want to get in an argument with the Coordinator. I just don't know what to do. Maybe do blanket seating? LOL Picnic style....

Honestly, I would not be happy if I showed up to a wedding and we had to stand for the ceremony. I know you say your ceremony is only 15 mins, but like PP said, people will likely be standing on their feet a lot longer then that. I know its not really in your control, but if I attended your wedding, I would think it was really rude.

@Mrs. CK - No the dining area can seat 95. My 80 headcount is if every single person shows up, which is unlikely, but even if it happened it would be okay.

"Honestly, I would not be happy if I showed up to a wedding and we had to stand for the ceremony. I know you say your ceremony is only 15 mins, but like PP said, people will likely be standing on their feet a lot longer then that. I know its not really in your control, but if I attended your wedding, I would think it was really rude."

Fair enough but what if I let you know ahead of time? And you could choose to skip the ceremony? Or would doing a private ceremony be better. Would you as a guest be offended if you were only invited to the reception?

I only have a few options to work with and they all seem like doomsday....

As long as the ceremony is short, I wouldn't mind too much. I'm sorry this happened to you :/

This sucks im sorry, i personally wouldn't mind standing. You can put it will be a standing ceremony and they have the option of only attending the ceremony if they want. Do u think more than 50 will definitely attend?

I went to a beach wedding where everyone except a grandma stood and it was fine (people had warning), and also my sister's wedding was on a patio in a park and everyone stood and it was fine (the entire wedding was super casual and non-traditional). How open is the space for general mingling before and then after leading into cocktails (when people normally stand around for an hour before sitting down, so it's not like being on their feet is actually that big a deal)? The nice thing with the beach and park was the space to kind of wander around and just enjoy the scenery before the ceremony was ready to begin.

ETA: that's me (back turned) and fiance at my sister's wedding.