Seating chart

The problem I see with open seating is the person who doesn't know anyone else there and ends up sitting alone (a risk when you have more seating than people, which many venues recommend or require for open seating). I've been to events, not any weddings thankfully, where the only people I knew were the host(s) and the person I went with and I ended up sitting alone at a table with my guest. It's an uncomfortable feeling. So, as a guest, assigned tables are definitely preferred.

Like others have said don't stress.

I was going to do a seating chart but it started to get overwhelming so now we are just doing assigned tables. Way easier and less stress!

How many people do you have outside of bridal party and parents/ family? doesn't seem like it should be that hard after that?

My best advice, take a step back, calm down, give it a few days. Then, we got a poster board and sticky notes with various colors for each "group" - my family, his moms family, his dads family, my friends, his friends. We wrote each persons name on a sticky, and placed it on the seating chart. It looked something like this:

post it note seating chart

If you decide not to do a seating chart, just make sure you have 20% extra seats b/c people won't sit down perfectly and you'll need the extra space/ seats to accommodate that!

It's not kindergarten, you don't need assigned seats, but doing assigned tables is fine.
I think if you have more than 100 people is the only time you'd need assigned seats anyway.
I've done event planning and it's not worth it for less than 100 people. It's a few hours, not forever. Most people will understand why your parents get a reserved seats and not anyone else, and frankly if they do not understand they're juvenile and selfish.

View Quoted Comment We did color-coded sticky notes on a poster board too! It was sooo helpfuln

Guests do not like open seating. Assigning tables is fine, don't make guests look for tables, it is humiliating to get told, we are saving this seat. Get FMIL and your mom to assign their guests to tables.

If I went to a wedding and I was treated like a second class person and some people got assigned tables and I did not, I would be furious.