Seating Charts

Please do not do open seating. It leads to stressed out guests, some tables being overly full and others not used at all. Group people based on how you know them (a college friends table, a cousins table, your parents' friends table, etc.) and do your best to make sure everyone has at least one other person that they know. Your bridal party don't have to all be at one table, but they should be with their significant others if they came with one.

Please never do open seating. People still have ptsd from the high school cafeteria at functions where the seating is open to wherever you want. Even adults still do the cliquey thing to grab all chairs from one table to cram into other. Social distancing is not a thing for them even when it’s something they enforce on others.



At the very minimum seat guests at tables and let the pick the seat. However, skip the poster/mirror, etc in favor of escort cards that guests can find their name alphabetically, grab and go. Posters and mirrors are impossible to read between illegible and tiny fonts, they create traffic jams and people forget where they are seated. You can order colored cardstock tent cards on Etsy that can be coordinated to match your colors and provide a code for the caterer if you are having a plated meal. A red tent card is a beef meal, pink is chicken, cream is vegan. Much easier on the waitstaff than tiny stickers or stamps they can’t see until they get to the tables.

I'm (almost) begging you: DO'NT try to make everyone happy coz it's impossible and you don't have to please them, they have to be reminded that the planning is stressful and you have 1 millions other things to do and think about. The only 2 people you have to please are yourself and your future spouse.

Plus: the dinner only lasts 1 to 2 hours, depending on the guest count and number of courses, so it won't kill them to be seated, as long as they are with people they know, don't dislike, have a chair, enough food and drinks.

Before and after dinner they don't have to seat at the table...

The only dos and don't, in my opinion:

* Don't do single tables, seat a single person with those they know.

* In general, seat everyone with people they know. As long as they don't dislike each other, it's fine.

* Don't seat 2 people at the same table if you know they hate/can't stand each other each other/had a serious fallout,they risk to make a scene. You may wanna ask your parents and your partner's, if there are "duets" you shouldn''t seat together

* If you're having a wedding party: the best bet is to seat them with their spouse/fiancé(e)/boy(girl) friend either at a 'kings table' with you and your partner or at other tables, as long as you don't separate those who are in a love relationship. Seating the WP at a head table and the partners at other tables is not a 'no-no' but personnaly, I wouldn't accept to be a bridesmaid or MOH if I can't seat next to my man.

* Put the older folks as far away from the DJ or band as possible. LOL, it may be obvious but just in case.

A note to add to PP, I have been a bridesmaid multiple times and everytime the wedding party sat with the bride and groom and the wedding parties spouses sat at different tables according to who they would get along with.

Like others have mentioned, do NOT do a 'seat yourself' chart. We've been to 2 weddings with this layout and it was a disaster both times. One of the weddings us, and many other guests were left without a seat the entire night which wasn't fun.

When I was creating mine, I started off by identifying those that CANNOT sit together. After that, I seated immediate family first, then extended family, close friends, friends, family friends, etc. Luckily, we don't have guests that clash, so it was easy to swap people around if we needed! I also tried to group similar age groups together. Example: our college friends sit together, childhood friends together, older family friends together etc.

Try to remember that it's impossible to make EVERYONE happy when creating your seating chart, so don't stress yourself too much about that. But absolutely have one because it gives your guests some sort of direction on where to go, and helps with guest traffic from cocktail hour into the reception.

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Some of them (probably a large majority) do get along with this, others don't like but don't throw a fit because they don't want to make the day about them, nor stress the couple, piss them off etc but still wish they were seated with their partner of given the option in my humble opinion.

View Quoted Comment There is no reason to separate bridesmaids/groomsmen from their significant others during dinner.

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This is why I said in my 1st comment that the best bet is to seat them with their SO. This what we would have done, had we h1s a WP and I also said I wouldn't accept to be a bridesmaid, MOH best woman or groomswoman for someone who doesn't want me to seat me with my SO during dinner. I would decline or drop out (in case they let me know what their plan is after they asked me to be in the WP)

Please don't do open seating it is stressful, put guests around who you know they would like, for example your mom dad and sister can share a table with your fh dad and mom

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This is very good advice.

I would add one thing, don't do open seating. You'll end up with a mishmash of over-crowded or empty tables, as people move the seats around.

View Quoted Comment This describes the company Christmas party I went to. People started out very awkwardly looking for places to sit, decided on one table of 10 and migrated to another to avoid sitting with certain people. For a company that prides itself on very strict social distancing, they had 3 at one table and 20 at the next table and other random numbers throughout.

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So many reasons to at least assign tables!