Back in the City!
August 24th, 2006 @ 10:24 am by Mrs. Bluebell
…and no progress made! We spent our 5 days upstate blissfully ignoring all those pesky caterer issues and not actually making a single call or even measuring the width of the area where we could put the tent! Oh well! I’m sure I’ll regret that soon, but I just couldn’t make myself do anything but relax up there, so it’s all good.
On to actual wedding-related items….
How do we feel about designated place settings? Presumably if you’re having a straight-up sit down served dinner, you would have to have them (right?). But for a buffet, are they necessary/nice to have/a little silly?
I’ll admit that my main reason for wondering about this is that we weren’t expecting to assign seats, but now I keep seeing great place card ideas and I totally want some of my own! But I think they’d be a bit out of place for our fairly informal buffet. We’ll have them for the Chinese banquet we’re having in the city after the wedding, but a lot of my cute ideas (toothpicks with names stuck into an apple is my current favorite) won’t seem as a propos at a Chinese restaurant…
At other wedding forums I’ve been to, people generally get VERY heated over the seated dinner vs. buffet, and seat assignments vs. no seat assignments issues, which leads me to think that perhaps it’s largely a regional issue (?)
That said…it’s poll time!
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15 Responses to “Back in the City!”
We are not doing place cards. As far as we see it this makes one less thing to worry about. We are going to have reserved signs on a couple tables for the bridal party and our parents. The venue will over seat the room so there will be plenty of space.
We are still naming our tables (baseball stuff for the FH), so people will remember where they are sitting since each table will have a unique name.
People are smart…they can figure it out. I don’t need the stress of caring if people like each other at the table 
I plan on doing table assignments. People seem to revert to middle school tendencies when it comes to social functions. People try to save seats, no one wants to sit with strangers so half the tables only have a handful of guests at them, etc. Also, our space isn’t very large and I’m not a big fan of cramped seating, so I would like to avoid having a lot of unneccesary tables and chairs taking up space.
You can always use those cute placecard ideas to put little “thank you for coming” notes or something at each place setting - plus, then they already have a snack if they get tired after dancing if you use the apples!
I’m doing assigned tables, but for actual seats at the table…that’s up for the guests to decide themselves!
I’m not doing assigned seats and (hold on to your hats) there won’t be enough chairs for everyone. We are going with party seating (see below for details) ’cause we are planning a party wedding.
We are doing a combination of traditional round tables with 10 chairs, high top tables for 4 with 2 stools and some casual conversational seating. We are also doing stations for the food which will be open for 2 hours so people can eat a bite or two and then dance and then eat and then dance, etc. if everone wanted to sit down at the same time 90% of them could do so.
that apple idea is perfect for an informal buffet! I think that providing seat assignments is a way of taking care of your guests, giving them one less thing to worry about.
We had assigned seating, but I think assigned tables would have worked just as well.
I think assigned tables (without assigned seating) might be a good bet for your informal reception. It’s important to put people who know each other, are in similar age groups, have similar interests, etc. so they have fun mingling.
we also we put our older guests further away from the speakers and the people who were most likely to dance right around the dance floor. amazing how much thought goes into just seating huh? =)
I also think the apple idea is TOO cute. We’re doing assigned seating, too, for a seated meal. Our reception is very laid-back, daytime lunch kinda thing, but my fiance wasn’t comfortable with having a table of “leavin’s”- (the people who don’t know anyone sitting by themselves). But then again, our coordinator warned us about guests who MAY switch their seats with other people. Off the bat, this made me angry, because those aforementioned leavin’s, but then I was like, what the hell, sit where you want- it was HIS idea! 
I just hope no one gets their feelings hurt by who they’re sat with! Lastly, we’d better not go through all the trouble of a seating chart if they’re just going to pooh-pooh it!
P.S. Welcome Back!
We are doing assigned tables, but not assigned seats. I think it’s a good idea, because we have exactly the number of seats as are guests, and we don’t want, say, a family of six coming in late and having to split up and sit at different tables because people like to save seats or not sit next to people they don’t know.
No assigned tables, no assigned seats. It’s just going to be a free-for-all. Which I greatly prefer to being seated at the aged single female cousin table.
But, I do have little placecards — they just say, “This Is Your Seat.” ha!
I’m the opposite - didn’t want to bother with assigning seats. But our coordinator said we should: leaving it up to guests means it takes too long for ppl to get seated, ppl like knowing they’re in the right place and we want family seated next to us (not stuck in Siberia). I’m not looking forward to trying to figure out who goes where, but it’s just one of those things you have to deal with.
Okay now I have kind of a dumb question…if we DID decide to do place cards, who sets them up? We won’t have a wedding planner/coordinator since we’re just having the reception at our family house. Is this something caterers would normally do? Or would we just have to get one of our friends to do it or something?
We’re having a seated dinner and plan on assigning tables, but not seats. I’ve been to 4 weddings this year: 1 with assigned seating, 1 with assigned tables, and 2 with no seating or table assignments. I preferred the table assignments over the other options, personally. At the 2 weddings with no assignments, I felt like we needed to get there early enough to find a seat with someone we knew (which weren’t many people at either wedding) and being shy, I felt akward asking, “are these seats taken?” I remember a wedding I went to 10 years ago (a long time ago, I know!)… it was a family member’s wedding and we were from out of town with elderly relatives… which honestly just takes a bit longer to get anywhere (just walking slower, etc, no offense, just true!) and we ended up sitting with people we’d never seen before, faaaaar away from any family, all the way in the back… and it just kind stunk because I felt the elderly relatives deserved a little more attention than that, and we spent a lot of money flying there with hotel rooms, etc etc etc… and then to be stuck away from anybody we knew… just not fun. And I’m not even THINKING about assigned seating for my wedding… because really… who needs that much of a hassle? They can find there table and choose an open seat.
Also… not sure about who’ll put out place cards… I’ve actually been wondering the same thing! I know the place were my reception will be will put out favors, but since it’s at a family home… hmm… best bet would probably be to contact your caterer and ask if they do that type of thing.
we had assigned tables and place cards that stated the table number for each guest. our reception venue had a wedding coordinator that set up a table with the cards. It worked out perfectly!
Mrs. Bluebell, New York
Age and Occupation in 07: 26, Finance Manager
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Playing with the cat and/or Consulting
Engagement Date: December 25, 2005
Wedding Date: June 2007
Venue: Bride's family summer home in the Adirondacks
About Me: Trying to find the perfect balance between family tradition (marrying at the house everyone else in my family gets married at), making our's modern, interesting and different from everyone else in my family's, and incorporating some Chinese tradition for my Chinese fiance. I really have no idea what it's going to end up looking like!
Also, I picked Miss Bluebell for my name because I have blue eyes and I'm a loser like that.
I thought about not doing place cards, but when I told my fiance last night, he objected. He said “people need to claim their seats.” He made a good point.. especially since you are doing a buffet, people might forget where they’re sitting - a place card will ensure their spot.