Suggestions welcome - tapas reception

First pic - whole venue

second pic - downstairs

third pic - upstairs

This is an old mill, so you see some mill equipment there. There is also a basement that is just linoleum, mill equipment, and bathrooms....not nice enough to really use for anything.

Talk to your venue! They must have had weddings before, right? We had to ask our venue as well how stuff normally works and it made me feel a lot better.

I'm not having assigned seating either, but I'm also heaving heavy hors d'oeuvres and not a plated dinner. Which sounds similar to yours?

Nope. It's a park run by the county. They have zero interest in talking weddings with me. Haha. I'm kind of trusting the catering company here because they have done weddings in this venue. I'm just second-guessing their ideas. This venue is definitely very DIY. It's just a big empty building with some folding chairs. They don't provide any type of coordinator or assistance.

YES, Lauren. They assured me it would be plenty of food to be considered dinner, but passed hors d'oeuvres and small plates. Not large plates of food.

Will they all be round tables or will you also have bistro type tables?

So the food will be passed around to everyone? Rather than everyone going and getting the food themselves?

Yea i know i had been saying in the other thread that i would do assigned tables but i think that she was doing a buffet for dinner, that you should have assigned seats in my opinion. for passed horderves and apps etc i think that a mix of tall cocktail tables and seated table would work.

There would be round tables and also tall cocktail tables. All of the food will be passed all evening and we will have a live band, so we want people to be up and dancing/mingling.

OK OK. I just see a lot of negativity here about having a seat for every butt and always doing assigned seating and I started to panic! I hope everything is not chaos. I'm trying not make a big etiquette mistake!

I would trust the caterers then, too

I think for the type of wedding that you and I are going for, that assigned seating is not necessary. I've never been to a wedding with a seating chart so maybe I am just not used to it but a cocktail style reception is more casual aka no seating chart, but thats just my opinion.

I expect seating charts at formal weddings or weddings that have plated dinners.

For a cocktail style reception like you are describing I would not do assigned seating or assigned tables. That is the only situation in which I would not do assigned tables, but because you don't expect people to sit to eat a full meal it's ok. That still means you can have a seat for everyone, but above all else I would trust the caterers.

I am extremely pro-seating chart, but I think for a cocktail style reception no seating chart is more acceptable.

You still need a seat for every butt, though. And in your case I would probably include a few extra tables and some different types of seating just in case people don't want to camp out at one table all night.

You need a seat for every butt, but not assigned seating for cocktail style. But people will want to put stuff down somewhere. Can you do some type of "coat check" where people can safely leave purses/shoes.

How many people are you having? That's a huge venue...

Stephanie, there is a coat rack and I am going to have tables and chairs for "stuff". Im going to talk to them about having a chair for every butt because they made it sound like there would be about 70% seating. However, I think that means seating at tables. We can still do chairs elsewhere (like around the dance floor).

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