No seating plan!

Venues hate this, by the way. And if you're doing a choice of entrees? It's a nightmare.

It's a lose lose either way.. I haven't been to that many weddings, but almost every wedding I went to I HATED where they decided to stick me and my FH. We were separated from where we should have been because there was not enough room at our friends tables. My FH and I are very chill people who get along with everyone, which is why the bride and groom probably always chose us to sit with strangers, but it still sucked. So no matter which way you decide to go you will probably still have people angry about their seats lol.

Ugh I HATE when there isn't a seating plan. Please reconsider, OP

1) I personally hate them because I'm introverted. I'm not good at meeting new people. If I have to be away from my friends because there are no seats available, I'll eat and leave. I also like order. Tell me where to sit and please have me sit with people I know.

2) Horror story #1. At my husband's nephew's wedding, there was only assigned seat for immediate family. My husband and I get there, and we're not even sure if we can sit there because the number of seats didn't match number of immediately family. So we look around and all other tables on the ground floor are filling. So we go to the loft area where there's more seating. We find a table, but NONE of the tables are set. No glasses of water, no plates, nothing. Those of us upstairs are seriously confused as to even if we can sit there. Then husband's sister sees us from below and flags us to go down there. By the time we make it, we've missed the passed appetizers, which were going upstairs a different way than we got down.

3) Horror story #2 - at a coworkers wedding last year, only the VIPs (once again) had reserved tables. The rest of us had to go outside (yup, the VIPs were the ones who got to sit inside on a summer July day in Texas). And there was quite a bit of shuffling outside because we didn't know each other and wanted to sit with people.

Save your friends and family. Assign tables.

The one wedding we went to that had assigned tables the bride sat all her family near the front and stashed the groom's family far away from them. Needless to say the marriage lasted less than a year. Her parents didn't like him.

Please have assigned tables!!!! I hate not knowing where to sit and then trying to find a way to sit people I WANT to sit with without the awkwardness.

Also if I am seated with people I dislike, clearly the couple doesn't know their guests very well.

For those that are using the excuse that it's a casual wedding, STOP.

I went to a casual backyard wedding with no assigned tables. A few of us had stepped away when they announced it was time to sit. Well by the time I got over there most seats were gone. Luckily, a relative of FH had held two seats for us and no one knew who was supposed to sit at the "reserved" tables. Therefore a random guest ended up sitting there with her husband. Someone came over to us to tell us we were supposed to sit there but we weren't going to make them get up! How rude, embarrassing and awkward.

Assign tables!

Also, just because "it's never been done at weddings I've been to" isn't an excuse either.

So be the FIRST to be a decent host.

Also:

What about the introverts who DON'T WANT TO sit with people they don't know?

@Bekkilynn - just STOP.

The marriage didn't last because the wedding had assigned tables. Really?

I have a bridge to sell you.

We plan on assigning tables, not seats, and we're planning on 65-75 guests. With 120, it would be chaos.

ETA: also YES to everything GymRat said!

I've been to numerous weddings in Alabama, Mississippi, George & Florida & I've never been to a wedding with a seating plan. So, I'm not having one at my wedding either. It's never been chaotic & everyone was always respectful of the family tables.

Even my single friends at weddings have never felt out of place or uncomfortable grabbing a seat at a table with people they've never met!

Might just be a southern thing...?

Natalie - not a southern thing, it's a guest thing where no one tells the bride/groom how bad the wedding was whether it was a dry wedding, cash bar, poor planning, poor communication, no seating, no assigned tables, how awkward they felt during dinner with strangers etc.

Not all guests may feel this way but there are plenty who do.

Some of you need to understand that a guest isn't going to go up to you during the wedding or after to tell you they were annoyed that they didn't get to sit near Suzie or that they were forced to sit next to John.

They'll bitch, moan and talk shit about you behind your back.

Bad bad idea... when I was discussing this possibility with my planner she said you must provide at least 15% extra seats for no seat plan. People often don't fill tables to the max and it ends up leaving others without seats.

In my own experience, I went to a no seating chart wedding, it was awkward. We actually had to pull up chairs to fit and then we were smashed....

I honestly wasn't going to do a seating plan for my wedding either. But, after this post and some very easy swaying of my mind, I have decided to do one. Thank you ladies so much!

Please at least assign tables.

If a wedding without any kind of seating worked out for you it's probably because you were one of the lucky one's and it was other guests who got the shaft. Bad idea.

I'm just gonna say it again. Not assigning tables for 120 is a very bad idea. People expect to be told where to sit at weddings. Unless you have a guest list under 20 you should not leave you guest wandering around looking for a seat.

Even after reading this thread you still decide to do this I hope you have 2-3 extra tables (with full tables settings) for your guests. What happens if two tables has only one chair left and a couple have not found there seat yet do you expect them not to sit together? Or a family of 5 and no table has more than 4 seat left.

I just want to add that reserving tables just for family still doesn't help. At the last 3 weddings I attended, there were tables reserved for "Bride's Family" or "Groom's Family". Now.. These were all my cousins. My mother is the godmother for one and there was only the parents and grandparents at a 10 person table because we couldn't decide if we were deemed "family" for the table or if we should sit with the rest of the guests who were probably related in some form to the bride or groom. There was literally a group of us standing around trying to decide if we should keep the grandparents company or if we weren't supposed to sit there because it was reserved.

Don't put your guests in an awkward position, just do the seating chart.

Natalie, it is not a southern thing to make your guests fend for themselves, don't put that on the south.

We assigned tables because I didn't want to pay for extra tables, centerpieces, linens, and chairs so that we could have half empty tables. I wanted more room for the dance floor, so we assigned tables so that we knew exactly how many tables we would need. We got to make sure that our friends and family sat with people they knew, or people we knew they would enjoy sitting with.

I hate not being told where to sit. It is especially hard on guests that don't know the immediate family. I think this is one of those "think about your guests comfort level" you need to consider.