TENT RECEPTIONS - Cutting guest list & seating arrangement

12x18 is the dance floor, 10x6 is the DJ booth, and the 20x20 to the bottom is our food tent.

I'm also struggling with where to seat our families. My parents are divorced, and both remarried. Things are awkward between my dad and my mom, so I don't want to sit them at the same table (for anyone who's seen my previous posts about my dad, I feel like my day would be much more enjoyable without him and his family there, but I still feel obligated to have them there). There will be hard feelings if I don't seat them towards the front.

The guest list and the tent arrangement are my biggest concerns right now. Any other suggestions or advice on how to make this less stressful?

It looks very tight just based on the picture. We also had a tented reception for 150 guests. We had a 40x80 tent with an additional 20x20. I couldn't have imagined anything smaller. I don't know all the logistics but you also need tables for possible DJ, gifts, photo booths, cake etc. and none of this appears to be on the drawing. Also I would hate to be the person on the end when it came time to eat, unless you are doing sit down plated dinners. Is there any way to get a bigger tent?

To be honest, it looks really tight to me. Is the tent your backup plan or your vision? Is it walled off or open-air? I could see this working as a back-up plan, but it definitely wouldn't be my ideal situation.

Looks tight to me too. Not much mingling room if guests want to stand around and chat. I wouldn't want to be the ones seating at the very ends of the tables.

We are doing a 44x65 tent for 90 guests at 60" round tables and a sweetheart table. We will also have a 16x16 dance floor, dj booth and 1-2 tables for caterer under that tent. We originally had a 30x52 which is 1,560 square feet and our rental company said they do not recommend over 85 people in that tent. We probably could have squeezed it out but would rather have our guests be comfortable and make sure we have enough room. We would rather have extra room than not enough.

I would ask your tent company what they recommend.

Tent is the vision. Backyard rustic theme. It will be open-walled, weather permitted. Otherwise, we do have the walls in case of weather incidents.

The 3D view makes it look like it would be comfortable. With the sides off, I don't feel like it would be bad, but with the walls up, I could see where it would feel cramped, and I'd also hate to be the person at the end. We are hoping to cut our guest list by another 20-30 people, which would free up 3-4 tables.

Another option was to put the dance floor outside of the tent.

I'd be a bit leery of having to walk by the DJ booth to get food and drinks and head back to the seat. If there are speakers set up by the booth, I'd had to get a blast of bass as I am walking by, too.

We had a tent reception (ceremony, too) and we did it with round tables. I don't know what the arrangement is call, but people watched the ceremony their tables...like a dinner show?? And it worked for us (and family).

I wish I had better advice as how it could be done better. I'd just rethink the placement of the DJ (maybe on back wall).

The tent company recommended adding length to the tent and getting a second tent (ha, how beneficial for them, right?).

The thing that confuses me the most is we have two tent vendors in my town and they have both quoted me the same size and same number of tables for the same amount of people.

@Under, thanks for pointing that out about the DJ. I could move the second tent somewhere else, that just seemed to be the most logical and spacious spot to put it access-wise. It could go behind the head table.

I originally had requested round tables, but after trying to fit into some sort of a layout, I realized that banquet tables might be more efficient.

Also considered nixing the head table and having a sweetheart table.

That seems reeeeeally tight. People will not be able to sit and eat comfortably, let alone move around comfortably. And the dance floor is itty-bitty. You could only have about 25 people dancing at a time.

It does seem tight and also where you have the DJ placed he/she will be playing directly into what I assume is the head table and I would feel really bad for the people that are seated closest to the DJ on the sides

Agh I don't know what to do. Going bigger is not in our budget. How low would we have to cut our guest list to make this fit comfortably?

Does anyone have any ideas on how to rearrange the layout so that it is more comfortable?

Thats tight. our guest list is at 75. were doing a 30x40 tent with our cake, 8 tables, our table, dance floor and dj. Our food is being served by our caterer and bar will be setup on the open side of the tent.

You would have to cut it in half to get comfortable spacing. There is no way to rearrange it that will make that number of people fit in that tent and still have the ability to move around and socialize and dance. Can you ditch the tent unless it rains?

We can definitely ditch the tent, and I actually plan to possibly spread things out outside of the tent (would that be tacky? or rude? some under the tent/some not under the tent) as long as the weather is nice, but then we would need to figure out lighting, as the tent comes with lighting.

My stepdad and grandpa are going to be building the dance floor. One thing we thought about was having the dancefloor outside of the tent, and then I found this picture of this dancefloor that I thought looked so cool. That would open up some room, and also the fact that the food, cake table, bar, and any other tables for displays or decor will be outside of the main tent.

Interesting. The 3D view doesn't look tight. And I don't think the situation is nearly as dire as others do. At least where we are, the chances of needing walls on September 30th are like zero. I think if the weather turns out nicely and you don't need walls, it'll be totally fine. I also think having the dance floor outside and to the center could work very nicely. I've been to a tent wedding like that and it was gorgeous.

Sorry, this response got way long.... I started thinking of all the things we needed to consider when we were in your shoes.

We went with a sweetheart table and it made a difference for us. We were able to seat the BP with their SO's and that made arrangement way easier than taking up all that space (because tables can't be shrunk) for just the BP.

We only had about 110 ish people show up out of our 122 RSVP's and we used round tables under the tent...Man, I wish I could remember the size of our tent. We were able to leave the walls off, which was awesome, because it made it feel less cramped and people mingled around much more fluidly once food was done.

We tucked the DJ into a corner, and she was perfectly happy and fine there. In fact, her equipment was under the tent and she had her stool sitting under the tree that was directly next to it. DJ's usually don't need a whole lot of space...You'd be surprised how compact they can be.

Something to consider, too, is that once those that weren't into dancing ate and left (I'm thinking all of our elderly guests and those with small kids and non-party types) we were actually able to break down a table. People all just started gravitating to where they wanted to be and took their things with them, leaving a table or two completely empty. Our crew just kind of moved a few tables a couple of feet here and there and suddenly the dance area was a lot bigger (our tent was on a very large stone patio, so no laid floor). It wasn't ideal, but we knew some guests would be leaving as soon as the cake was cut.

In all honesty, if the weather is nice and you can leave the walls off, putting extra space around the tables isn't as big of a deal as long as the sun isn't blasting down on people. We chose to put our sweetheart table in the area that would have the greatest sun exposure and we left ourselves in the sun to create more space in the shade for our guests. Plus, we were hardly at that table...We were making rounds and welcoming people most of the time. Our table could have been broken down, too, after we ate. The staff was so discrete with stuff like that, I don't know that anyone would have noticed (and certainly not cared) that our little table was gone.

You also need to really see the space that the tents will be in, because trees make a huge difference. If you can't set up the tents for a trial run, at least try to rope out or mark out the space. Depending on the slope and terrain, you may even be able to set up some of those tall cocktail tables just outside the tent. We noticed that lots of people wanted to carry their plate or drink and mingle. The cocktail tables were great for that. It meant more room at the regular tables, too, so less squeezing by chairs. People did not all eat at the same time or the same rate, and with somewhere else to stand and talk, they felt less anchored to their table.

Empty tables vs full tables makes a difference in what you see, too. I'll see if I can find and attach a photo just so you see what I mean. We had the advantage of getting to visit our venue a month before, with bare tables up and chairs around them, so we could get a really good look (yay for a planner and her insistence we do so before linen and table orders were finalized). Getting to look at the space with all the tables there made a HUGE difference in how we did our arrangement.

Another idea (sorry, brain is working right now).... Have you thought about using smaller, round tables for the cake, non-alcoholic beverages (or even those narrower rectangular tables...about 3' deep) for appetizers and stuff? A lot of times you end up with empty table space when using regular banquet tables for food service of beverages and apps. Same with whatever greeting/card/gift table you will have. We were able to use nicely draped, smaller tables for those. We actually brought in our plastic, 4'long portable Costco tables for it and had matching linens put on them, rather than renting those. Our bar (beer and wine only) was completely removed from the main tent and was under two, very large patio umbrellas (high quality and neutral color) and a white pop-up canopy. Guests had to walk maybe 10 yards from the tent to get their drink, but it freed up space under the main tented area. We also had our greeting/card table set up just outside the tent.

I think, that if you will have a lot of nearby trees and shady areas, you can probably push some of those extraneous things out a bit.

Of course, all that goes out the window if it rains and you need to put walls up. Pray for sun and warmth at the end of September.

Sorry for the rambling. I was trying to remember what all we had to consider and how we made it work. We didn't rent any additional tents. We did buy a 1 huge patio umbrella and borrowed and scrubbed a white pop-up. When the patio umbrellas were first suggested (and the white popup) I was looking side-eyed at it...but in the end, looked just fine. We had a rather casual wedding and the bar wasn't a focal point in pictures.

With bodies in seats:

@lyla, there is something majorly off with the rendering. For one thing, it doesn't actually show the setup the OP was proposing. But moreover, the dimensions don't make any sense.

If you have three tables in a width of 20 feet, each table gets 6.6 feet of the tent. Banquet tables are 2.5 feet wide. That leaves 4.1 feet for people to actually sit. 24 inches is considered the minimum spacing behind a table to allow for an average sized adult in a chair. That means each aisle will be exactly 1 inch.

Yes you can physically fit this many people in the space, but nobody will be able to move around once they are seated. If someone in the middle needs to use the bathroom, but rest of the people at their table are going to have to get up from their and let them pass. This is airline style seating, not mingling at a party style.

Where did you find a 3D tent layout planner?