The King&#8217;s Table

The King’s Table

April 9th, 2010 @ 3:37 pm by Mrs. Pudding
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Our reception space is your typical banquet hall. Nothing fancy, just a large room with hardwood floors and chandeliers, and lots of wooden panels. Typically, weddings that take place here follow the same set up pattern: round tables for guests, and a long rectangular head table for the wedding party. Here’s a visual:

The King's Table : wedding decor reception vermont Img 306081 IMG_30608

(photo credit goes to Uncle Pudding)

There are several reasons why I am feeling a bit “meh” about this arrangement.

First of all, I find the idea of a large head table a little bit… overdone. I feel that this blueprint for a reception hall, although beautiful and I am sure very functional, is just a little bit outdated for us. I would like our room to have a little more originality. My second problem with this arrangement is the fact that we have a very small wedding party of 6 (and that includes the bride and groom). That will make for a very small head table, and I feel like with this arrangement, it’s go big or go home. Lastly, I don’t like how this set up makes the wedding party a major focal point of the event. I would rather not be stared at while eating the delicious food that we hand selected.

Sister Pudding and I were thinking about this conundrum the other day, and we came up with (what we think is) a perfect solution! Why not make the head table vertical instead of horizontal? Don’t know what I mean? Here is a wedding the pulled it off to perfection!

photos

Do you see how the long head table, with the bride and groom sitting at the helm, is framed on either side by round tables? I am thinking of having our parents and grandparents sit at the table with us, making the reception family focused. I am so in love with this idea, and the photos that it will provide. I feel like it brings the modern aesthetic of long tables to a reception that is doomed to use round ones.

I pitched this idea to Mama Pudding and Pudding Pops, and they are not quite on board. They don’t understand the concept and don’t think that it will work in our more square hall (which is giant by the way - my cousin had a wedding for 450 people there). They also worry about the fact that the bridal party will have their backs to some of the guests, but doesn’t this happen with round tables as well?

All in all, this battle has not been won yet, but I am determined to hold my ground.

Are you doing something unexpected with your table layout? Did you face any opposition from your more traditional family?

Tags: decor, reception, vermont |

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28 Responses to “The King’s Table”

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Member

heather25 (message) 2,355 posts, Buzzing bee

pretty neat. Do you want to sit with your wedding party?

4/9/10 @ 3:39 pm (reply)

Member

MissMichele (message) 134 posts, Blushing bee

I went to a wedding with a head table in it like this. It was Wonderful. It gives you a little privacy, if that’s possible at your wedding. hehe.

4/9/10 @ 3:41 pm (reply)

Member

bvig (message) 1,113 posts, Bumble bee

That’s what we had for our wedding. It worked out well.

4/9/10 @ 3:42 pm (reply)

Member

panda in England (message) 210 posts, Helper bee

wow, Pudding its like you dove inside my minds eye, found almost exactly what I was imagining and then managed to find a picture of it! I love it!! Thanks so much for sharing - now my FI has been able to SEE what I’ve been trying to explain to him!!!

4/9/10 @ 3:42 pm (reply)

Member

future Mrs.M (message) 126 posts, Blushing bee

I LOOOVEEE this idea! This is what I am doing for some of the exact same reasons you listed. The traditional head table just doesn’t feel ‘us’

4/9/10 @ 3:44 pm (reply)

Member

future Mrs.M (message) 126 posts, Blushing bee

just thought of one thing - are the other tables rectangular as well? or rounds?
Our venue has round tables and a limited number of long ones, so i think we will do the Kings Table with the guests at rounds.

4/9/10 @ 3:46 pm (reply)

Member

Mrs. Starfish (message) 286 posts, Helper bee

I think it is a great idea! I didn’t like the head table across the front either but went with it b/c I could not come up with another solution that Mr. S & I could agree on and I had things I did know how I wanted to change and focused on those. I wish I had seen this!

4/9/10 @ 3:47 pm (reply)

Guest

Stefani

We didn’t want to do a head table for the wedding party either, so we ended up doing round tables for all the guests and a sweetheart table for just the two of us. We were on a raised platform and that way people came up to us to toast us instead of us necessarily having to make rounds and missing people. It worked out really well, and I would highly recommend it!

4/9/10 @ 3:49 pm (reply)

Member

Miss Navy Blue (message) 74 posts, Worker bee

Love it!! I may have to consider this for our small bridal party as well!

4/9/10 @ 4:04 pm (reply)

10.

Bee

Miss Hamster (message) 4,046 posts, Honey bee

Pretty cool! I think it looks great

4/9/10 @ 4:09 pm (reply)

11.

Member

MeghanV (message) 375 posts, Helper bee

Stick to your guns. Not only will it look great, it will allow you to interact more with your family and loved ones during the reception, since you’ll be facing toward them.

4/9/10 @ 4:48 pm (reply)

12.

Member

gill84 (message) 725 posts, Busy bee

I like this idea! In fact I might even use it. We also have a small wedding party, and we want to be nearer to our guests! We were going to seat ourselves at the middle round table so we’d be surrounded by our guests on all sides - but now you’ve gotten me thinking long table in between all the round ones…

Hope it works out for you!

4/9/10 @ 4:54 pm (reply)

13.

Member

ninjadarling (message) 388 posts, Helper bee

This is also what I want to do. I haven’t found as great of photos as these though! I will be bookmarking them :).
I think it will look lovely in your venue

4/9/10 @ 4:55 pm (reply)

14.

Member

labrat (message) 472 posts, Helper bee

That is such a perfect solution for your problem! We won’t have that problem bc all of our tables will be on the wrap around porch around the lodge rather than in a banquet hall. I’m not even sure if we will assign seats yet (I know major faux pas).

4/9/10 @ 5:23 pm (reply)

15.

Member

VanCountry (message) 24 posts, Newbee

We are doing this too!
Except all of our tables will be set-up like this, and at the head of each table will be our bridal party (one guy and one girl). We have five tables of 25, so two bridal party couples on each side, and us in the middle!

I am excited to see the picture too, definitely forwarding it to our wedding planner!

4/9/10 @ 5:52 pm (reply)

16.

Member

KCheer (message) 370 posts, Helper bee

We are doing this too! I really don’t like the idea of people watching us eat like we are on display! :o) Looks like it is the new trend!

4/9/10 @ 6:00 pm (reply)

17.

Bee

Miss Pudding (message) 1,180 posts, Bumble bee

If any one is interested in seeing the rest of this beautiful wedding, the photographers blogged about it here:

http://sweetmondayphotography.squarespace.com/journal/2009/6/19/ami-nick-married-at-the-riviera-country-club.html

4/9/10 @ 6:05 pm (reply)

18.

Bee

Miss Starfish (message) 1,924 posts, Buzzing bee

I liek this a lot!

4/9/10 @ 6:16 pm (reply)

19.

Member

krissybee (message) 3,921 posts, Honey bee

i like this arrangement alot!! stick with it!

4/9/10 @ 6:28 pm (reply)

20.

Member

aunt pol (message) 1,473 posts, Bumble bee

Yep, that’s pretty cool, actually. Good thinking batman!

And, if your venue’s huge, and if you’re not going loco on centrepieces & tablecloths etc, why not have more tables, with fewer guests at each table? Give everyone more elbow room, fill the place up a bit.

I’ll be showing this to FI too! We’ve a big enough wedding party, actually, and this could work quite well!

4/9/10 @ 9:33 pm (reply)

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