Wedding reception seating assignments: To assign or not assign?

I was busy blogging away on my computer with The Talk on in the background when all of the sudden I heard one of the ladies say “Is having a perfect seating assignment the key to having a good time at a big event or wedding?” “That is my next blog title” I yelled out to my husband! Mark was little more than phased having no idea what I was talking about…. you know us ladies and our multitasking, he didn’t even know the TV was on *hehe*.

Any who If you have planned your own wedding or helped a family member plan theirs you have run into at least one discrepancy when it came to the seating chart. In planning my own wedding I know that it took weeks for me to decide who was going to sit next to my crazy Aunt Sally (sorry Aunt Sally!). You really don’t realize how many factors go into the placement of all of your guests until you and your soon to be hubby sit down with 250 place cards in front of you sprawled out on the coffee table! It really comes down to a game of simple math and heads and tails.

On the other hand, some of you are contemplating letting the guests sit wherever they choose. Let me start off by saying I really admire you for having so much faith in your guests but more times than not this does NOT WORK. A lot of the times families and even couples can be split up because there is not enough room at the table. For some of your guests this is a complete nightmare; it’s like high school all over again where clicks start to be organized and the more reserved guests or unfamiliar guests that live out of town feel completely uncomfortable and alienated. We don’t want that for our guests do we? Didn’t think so. Try to think of this arrangement like the movie theater…. when a movie is sold out more times than not the manager has to come in and tell everyone that they need to scoot in and leave no seat empty because you and I both know that you left a seat for your Prada beside you Do you really (as the bride) want to get on the loud speaker to tell your guests that they have to sit next to each other?

Assigned seating it is! Now… there are many things to consider when making your seating list i.e. who gets along, who doesn’t get along and who you want with whom. But another option to think about is to either go with SEATING assignment or TABLE assignment. I made a table assignment for my wedding and had absolutely no problems with guests finding appropriate seats. Depending on the size of the table, people usually choose the seat that you intended for them anyway.

The seating assignment is going to be one of the most time consuming projects that you encounter planning your big event but it is something to definitely triple check to make sure it all makes sense and makes everyone…. well almost everyone happy!

Here are a few tips to remember when making your seating chart:

1. Once you contract your venue, they will usually have a chart that you can use of the premises to make your seating chart on. Make sure that all details are accounted for on the chart, like columns or any other obstruction of view guests might have when seated.

2. Take into consideration people with disabilities and/or the older guests that may not be able to see or hear as well if seated far away.

3. How many children are you having at your event? Do any of them need high chairs? Booster seats? You might even consider having a children’s table, if the children are old enough to behave themselves of course.

4. Decide if you will be making escort cards OR place cards. Like I spoke of earlier about the table assignment vs the seating assignment, if you choose to use the table assignment than you would use escort cards which do exactly what they are named! they escort your guests to their table. Place cards are placed at the table specifying where your guest sits.

5. Enjoy this part this is the point in the process where it became real that our closest family and friends were going to be celebrating this amazing time in our lives.

Ladies & Gentlemen I am pleased to announce it is time for the eye candy!

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