Seating chart nightmares lol

Following. Today is our RSVP deadline and we are starting our table assignments process.

Generally it's a good idea to seat family together and not try to mix people up. What we did for my daughter's wedding was write the names of people who had to be seated together (couples, parents with little ones) on slips of paper. People we knew "should" be seated together but it was more flexible (friend groups) we taped their slips together. From there we made the tables by taping everything to a wall and arranged and rearranged until we had the tables figured out. It took a bit of effort but we got a 150 person wedding figured out on about an hour and a half

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Side question...how long did you give for your RSVPs?

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Thank you so much...that does make a lot of sense..seems like too much stress to try and mix everyone up like the wedding I was at. Did your daughter have a head table? If so, did you seat their plus ones etc with friends and family?

I used AllSeated. It's amazing. If you have a popular venue they might have your floorplan preset already. It's so easy to visualize and mix and match. Keep couples together of course and try to pick people who may have common links. Ex: my FHs friend from China is being seated with my old friend who travels the world constantly.

We have two bridal party tables; we didn't want one long table with people only sitting on one side and we have a pretty even split for the bridal party. My parents are sitting at a table with my grandparents and our VIPs and my FHs parents are seated the same way at a different table. Family is set closer to the sweetheart table than family friends, and the younger people are closer to the dance floor. This ensures a good flow and that the grandparents aren't next to the speakers.

View Quoted Comment We gave 4 weeks. But then only 25% had RSVP so we reached out to everyone after that deadline to let them know we could give them an extra 2 weeks. That deadline was today and we have all but 2 or 3 RSVPs back.

I am so confused on this whole thing?? Table number,seating chart, how do you even let ppl know?

A lot of people will say a head table is not proper but every wedding I’ve been to has had one. We are having one and no one in the party has a problem with it.
I did tables by putting the guest list in order of people that should sit together (a family, couples, etc.) additionally I looked at people who knew eachother well and should be seated together. Then I asked FH what he thought about his side (which I had attempted and actually got quite close.) There were a few that we had to readjust as well as a few we had to place that we didn’t have figured out right away but it honestly didn’t take me that long and I have 130 guests

View Quoted Comment So once we get thru the craziness that is the seating chart lol you order numbered seating cards for each person and then people usually print out who’s at each table on a list so they know where they are going

View Quoted Comment We’re dojng table assignments.
We will have a display of what table they are supposed to be going to.
You have the option of also assigning seats and if that is the case (more work but better for caterer with serving plated meals.) you put place cards at their seat for them.
OR
We are doing escort cards (not assigned seats) they will have heir name and their table number. This tells them which table to sit at but not which seat.
If you just let people sit wherever they want you need to have extra tables and chairs because 5 people may sit down at an 8 person table and a family of 4 is still without seats. This eliminates the need for your guests to have to find a seat with strangers or break up their party.

View Quoted Comment Some people do place cards at each setting with guests names on them, and a card in the middle of the table with the table number on it. In leiu of place cards we are going to have a seating chart at the reception entrance with everyone’s name, alphabetical by last name, and table number. From there they can choose where at the table they want to sit .

I’m not doing a head table because a lot of the people in our bridal party are front different friend groups. We wanted our bridal party to sit with their SO rather than up in front so they were comfortable too.

I would wait until closer to your wedding to worry about that since you probably don't have RSVPs back and don't want to include people who won't able to attend. Whether you have a head table or a sweetheart table is purely your preference. I think sweetheart tables are more courteous to your BP as it allows them to sit at a different table with their date. If you decide to go with a sweetheart table, seat your bridal party at the table(s) nearest to you with their dates. Normally parents, siblings, and grandparents would be at the next closest tables, remaining family at tables nearest to them. When you start seating your friends try to think numbers, unless you know it's a group of people who would want to sit together, like your coworkers or a group of friends from college. If you can seat 10 to a table and you have a family of 4, and two families of three, seat them together to fill up the table. I've also seen in other forums brides talking about how helpful the WW seating chart was, but I'm not sure where that's located.

We are using All Seated, and it's turning out to be a great option. I seated everyone from "our" side of the family, seating family with their families, so they will be happy together, and have people they know to talk to. I also considered which tables were next to each other.

Bride & groom are seating their friends/colleagues. They also put in where they wanted all the special items like DJ, dessert table, and so on. Mother of Groom is working through their side of the relatives, and will either get it on All Seated, or let me know the family groupings, so I can put it onto the app. (Is it called an app when I am using it on the website on my laptop? But I digress.)

It took me a little time to learn to use the software, but it does a lot of cool things. Like, after the tables are seated, we are now going to rotate the entire room to better accommodate the dance floor, and we can easily do that.

Head Table: I think why some people are against this is that perhaps "technically" a head table is just the bridal party, and there's a label "king table" for including the SO of the bridal party. (I only learned that here on Wedding Wire.) However, I think most people use the phrase "Head Table" to mean the bridal party and SO. My daughter is having a "head table" that includes the SO of the bridal party members that have such a person. I've never actually seen a head table that didn't includes spouses, etc...

I'm not doing a seating chart so no nightmares for this bride 😁

I'm also not doing a seating chart. I have a head table that kinda has a sweetheart table? (we're behind the wedding party elevated but they're all right in front of us)

Some people on here say it's a bad idea not to have a seating chart, but I've been to countless weddings where there wasn't one and everything turned out fine. People sit with who they know, and everyone that's coming knows at least a few other people.

I have enough to worry about!

We are doing a sweetheart today. Our bridal party will be mixed in based on their role (sisters, cousins, friends). We are seating our guests with close family members or friends. We aren't mixing both sides! My parents will be with my sisters and their significant others and my nieces. His parents will be with his grandparents and sister & boyfriend. Then aunts and uncles will be grouped on my side with some cousins. His side is a little harder with over 10 aunts and over 10 uncles, with like 58943 cousins! So we will take time to work on figuring who will sit with who, LOL!

We are doing a sweetheart table, then next to me is a long table with my party and next to FH is a long table with his party. Our guests (including family) were all assigned by table. We will our parents to go over the rsvp list and pick the 8 people they wanted to be seated with. Then we will organize the rest by little pods of people from there. There might only be a few tables where some people might not know each other but it was the best we can do

This is why I am having a lounge wedding reception. I wish I could help but, I have done any and everything to avoid this headache. LOL

Just last night we had a meeting at our venue to go over some final details for our big day- 6/8! We will be doing a sweetheart table. I'm using the seating chart on WW. I happen to really like it because I have all the guest information entered in and as I get an RSVP that's a "yes" I can log it in and play around with the seating electronically. I don't have to worry about the stress of having the paper with circles and moving sticky tabs. I'm all about easy. However, my one piece of advice is to wait until you have RSPVPs back...I think you might be stressing out a little too early about this. To simply things even more for myself, instead of individual place cards, I have a collage frame that I'm going to use and label A-D for example and list the guests alphabetically at their assigned table. I'm not assigning seats though- that's a little ridiculous I think. It would look something like this:

A-D

Jane Adams- Table 1

David Brace- Table 3

Jane Doe- Table 5

I'm going to have a separate sign that says something about finding their seat based on their last name initial..IDK how exactly I'm going to word it. Good luck though!