Allocating wedding seating is one of the best ways to minimize any chance of drama happening on your big day. You don’t want ex-girlfriends, family politics and friend battles taking away the shine of your wedding day! We asked Amanda from Be My Guest Design to share with us some tips and tricks on creating a wedding reception seating plan which works for everyone.
Reception Venue Seating
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Reception Venue Seating – your first job is to figure out how many people can sit per table, and how many tables you’re having. Wedding Planners like Encore Events know the ins and outs about how many tables can fit within a range of venue locations and how many people can fit comfortably per table. Depending on the space, furniture and budget available, you might like to mix up your seating arrangements– long rectangular tables can fit a greater seated capacity into an area and it’s easier for guests to talk. Round tables are a more traditional option and afford your guests more legroom.
Mapping Your Wedding Reception’s Space
- Mapping Your Wedding Reception’s Space – this will help you ensure all your guests have enough room to eat their meals and are comfortable. Create a floor plan to map out your reception. Go old school and sketch out a floor plan to scale with measuring tape, paper and pen or online software which can do the job for you. Here’s also where the services of a Encore Events can come in handy. With plenty of knowledge about and experience in wedding reception seating, they can sort the whole lot for you.
Grouping Your Wedding Guests
- Grouping Your Wedding Guests – organising guests into groups can make it easier to give each guest a seat at your wedding reception. Examples of such groups are bridal table, immediate family, mutual friends, work friends, family friends and any other categories that might make sense for you both.
Arranging Guests Into Tables
- Arranging Guests Into Tables – Google Sheets is useful for this task. Start a spreadsheet and at the top of each column type out your table names.Underneath each table name, leave the number of cells empty that the table can fit, and in the next cell below, write down how many people can fit at that table. From here you’ll be able to allocate guests to a table and yes, there will be lots of shifting round and back and forth – it is a giant Tetris puzzle and a process of elimination. Encore Events
Sharing your Seating Arrangements
- Sharing your Seating Arrangements – here you’ll be communicating to guests exactly where they will be seating. This could be done using seating plans (a large sign or individual pieces of card), place cards or escort cards. See some examples of the different options on Be My Guest Design’s website. With plenty of pre designed seating plans to choose from, there’s one for every taste and every wedding.
I hope that this guide has given you some useful tips and tricks for compiling your wedding reception seating plan. Come and check out our range of wedding seating plans and if you have any other questions then please get in touch; we’d love to help!
