Weddingbee Blog

That’s why we’re not even having a seating chart. We will have reseved tables for our immediate families and wedding party, but other than that it’s a free for all. We want people to be up dancing, not worrying about who they get stuck talking with all night! (And maybe those who do get stuck with Aunt Millie* will be more inclined to mingle and dance!)

*I have no Aunt Millie

Wow, no seating chart? That wouldn’t fly at our shindig. Of course we want them to mix it up, but we want them to feel like they have a safety zone…and that we’re organized.

Tessa (and anyone else): I forgot to mention, the site isn’t compatible with Safari yet…

See the people at our wedding will break down like this:

1. Immediate family, who all know each other already, sitting together.
2. Extended family (grandparents, aunt, uncles, cousins, great aunts, etc.) who again know each other and will naturally flock together.
3. Friends, who will all know each other by the time the wedding comes around thanks to various showers and parties.

There really isn’t anyone who will be stuck knowing only their date. That’s the beauty with having all of his family from this area.

His sister’s wedding had no seating chart, and because it was mostly family with a few friends (like ours will be) it worked out nicely. Since we’re using her wedding as a benchmark for a lot of ours, we know we will be fine.

i hate free for alls.

This will make someone laugh — Our budget version (done on the hotel room floor the day before the wedding — trust me, we had no choice, thanks to many last minute RSVPs and un-RSVPs!): Arranged paper plates (”tables”) on the floor to match the floor plan. Wrote guests’ names on post-it notes and stuck them onto plates, rearranging until we got something sensible. (Helped to stick the post its together to keep certain people together at one table and move them as a unit.) Once happy with the arrangement, I numbered the plates with a fat magic marker and stapled the post-it notes to the plates. I wrote the escort cards and handed everything to our (awesome) catering manager, who replicated everything perfectly.

My first thought about seating was “let `em sit where they want - aren’t we all adults?” but then my mom explained that issue of the puzzle of getting everyone to fit with no empty chairs. So if you venue lets you have more tables & chairs than actual guests the free-for-all will work better. But if you are only going to have 1 chair per guest then you need to give them some guidance. They can choose what chair they sit in as long as they are assigned to a specific table. I’d love to be able to have extra tables and chairs but there isn’t room in the venue.

I was just thinking today that I am going to have to start working on the seating chart soon - and I was dreading it! This will definitely help, so THANKS!

IDo Wedding program also has an awesome seating chart for free where you can pick the table shape, pick the seating arrangements, record entree request, etc. it’s my favorite program so far.