Miss Peacock, Chicago
Age and Occupation: 26, PhD Student
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Internet Whiz
Engagement Date: December 5, 2006
Wedding Date: September, 2008
Blogging Since: December 13, 2007
Venue: St. Clement Church, Cafe Brauer (or a big church wedding and a fancy party at a cafe in Lincoln Park.
About Me: I am a grad student with a secret obsession for all things wedding related. I also love to read, travel, drink champagne and go for walks with our dog, Maisy, and Mr. Peacock. We are planning our very vintage wedding in the greatest city in the world, our hometown of Chicago. I am so proud to be a Bee!
The Long and Short of it, Part II
May 10th, 2008 @ 12:58 pm by Miss Peacock
Like a few other bees, I am using the Perfect Table Plan software to assign seats and lay out the room for the reception. I really love playing with it. I already uploaded all of my guests (no, the invitations haven’t gone out yet. Why do you ask?) and have assigned their seats. The software enables you to make connections between people which will help you assign their seat- do you want them to sit right next to each other? At the same table? As far apart from each other as humanly possible? Are they a VIP? You can lock people in at particular tables. If you spend enough time on that, you can just hit “Auto Assign” and the program will seat everyone for you. It is way more fun than it sounds.
Although I can’t figure out how to create my strange, octagonally shaped room, I can still estimate its size. I cut out space for the dance floor, added the bars, the band and enough rectangular tables to seat roughly 200 people. Here is what it looks like. The left and right sides do not represent walls, so it isn’t as cramped as it appears.
What do you think? Should I go back to round tables?
11 Responses to “The Long and Short of it, Part II”
I really like the look of the long table and the feel it would have, but the only concern from this picture is the amount of space between each table. Would there be enough room for two people to simultaneously pull out their chair and walk past each other? From the look of it, it would be pretty snug, and you don’t want guests having to suck themselves into the table as much as possible all night every time someone walks by. If, spacewise, you have enough room for both opposing chairs to be pulled out towards each other and someone can walk between them, then I say go for it!
long tables are so much better. round is just typical and kind of boring. long is a little more unique and it’s more homey.
Also I know the bees got free test copies of the perfect table plan software but I’d like to point out for brides that don’t want to pay for something they likely won’t ever use again that there are some free ways to do the table plans.
Bed Bath and Beyond has guest list/seating manager you can do for free. http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/regBTEnlargeImage.asp?ZMImg=toolkit_seatingArranger_zoom.jpg and I’m sure there is some other software as well.
I would have to see it in action, because from the plan it looks a little too ‘cafeteria-seating’ to me.
If it’s an octagonal room, why not ring the tables in an octagon around the edges and save the middle for dance space? That could give space for people to walk and mingle… maybe…
Following BaghdadBride’s comment about free ways to do the table plan, wedding wire also gives you the capability of making visual table plans and dragging people/families to the seats. It might not be as robust as perfect table plan (I don’t think you can make the kind of relationships the OP mentioned) but it might be enough for some of us who still need a visual instead of just a list.
http://www.weddingwire.com also has a easy to use and free table planner to be used with their guest list planner.
Do you all think that long rectangular tables seat more or round ones?
You may have more space if you make the all the tables except the middle one vertical and connect two together - making 4 super long tables, which I really like the look of, personally.
I like long tables versus round because I feel like you can talk to more people more comfortably (the two people beside you and the three people across from you). But my fiance thinks round tables are better for talking - he thinks you can hear everyone at the table (maybe he’s got super-hearing?).
Maybe Weddingbee could do a poll and find out what people have found. I’d be interested
Stick with the long tables! I think it will be just fine!
Thanks for the suggestions on free software. Yes, we did get free copies and I am not sure if I would be using it otherwise- although I really would recommend it if you are interested in purchasing one.
@cs: I tried it with the tables going in the other direction, I can’t seat as many people 
@ChiBri: I think that it totally depends on the size and shape of your room. For me, at least from what I can tell, it was a wash.
@Cassandra Brown: The tables would have to be much shorter- just rectangles- because its not a true octagonal. The room has the sides of an octagon with a rectangle in the middle… I hope that makes sense!
@julieulie: I think that those little bubbles are much larger than an actual seat- compare it to the width of the table. Man, I would love to see this in action!
