Who sits where at the reception? Group by family or generation?

We seated people based on who we thought they'd rather sit with. For instance, my husband's parents preferred to sit immediate family together, including his sister. However, my parents preferred to sit with some of their close friends and relatives from their generation, and I sat my brothers with some cousins/people they were friendly with.

I sat mine with their immediate family. My aunt, for example fit perfectly at a table of 10 with her 2 kids/their spouses and 4 grandkids.

It depends on what you think people would want. We're doing more by generation (cousins at some tables, parents' generation and their friends at other tables). I don't want to make my teenage cousins suffer by sitting them with their parents. But there may be some aunt or grandma who will throw a hiss fit if she doesn't get to sit with all her kids and grandkids. So you have to know your crowd.

I'm seating people with whom I think they'll be happiest to interact with! And then it's just a little puzzle to see how many people and what groups can fit at what tables.

I seat people by families. I wouldn't put my aunt at a different table than my cousins.

That's hard to say.

so i went to a wedding where they separated me and my brother and my parents from each other. literally i was at a table, my brother was at a different table and my parents were at a different table. that was kind of weird especially because me and my bro didn't know anyone else there. i noticed the tables they separated people at were based on age.

some people might really like that though because they are interacting with people their age and can socialize with but some others may not like that either. i think it all really depends but the way i did it was i generally kept people together.

I'm definitely going with who they'll have the most fun with. We're not having a lot of kids at ours (only those actively involved) so we only have a single table's worth of kids, and they're almost all related so we're sticking them together.

Everyone else, I consulted my mother in law to ask about the family members that I don't know, and she agreed, its who will have the most fun together (which means for us that cousins are together, aunts and uncles together etc).

As the sibling at a wedding - I did ask my brother at his wedding to sit me with my cousins as I knew I would have so much fun with them. He did not and had me as the only person of our generation not sitting with them. When my cousin got married a few years later, she sat almost all of the cousins together (there were too many of us at that point for a single table) and it was the absolute best. Sitting families together can be nice, but weddings often are a time for families who don't see each other as often to see and spend time together. That might be something to add into the mix when thinking about who should sit with each other.

I'm seating people with the same personalities or who we believe they will enjoy. The wedding party and spouses will be seated together. As for family we are mixing the tables of family from both sides. We are adults so sitting with new people shouldn't be a issue.