Cabaret Style

Cabaret Style

August 10th, 2010 @ 2:20 pm by Mrs. Glasses
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We still haven’t been able to put any action to our inspiration for our backyard wedding. It’s worrying for a type-A person like me, but it does have one advantage—I’m able to consider all aspects of the wedding from several different angles.

(source)Maybe not those kind of angles. One of the things I’ve been thinking about is seating for the ceremony and reception. I’ve already posted about my obscene need for chiavari chairs, but since we’ll be spending so much money on the darn things, we need to get the most out of them. It would be counterproductive to have them ONLY for the ceremony or ONLY for the dining portion of the night, so why not use them for both? This can be achieved by going cabaret style.

(source)

This gorgeous Santa Barbara wedding is the only inspiration I’ve found, and believe me I’ve been keeping my eyes open! Basically, cabaret style is seating guests for the ceremony as they’d be seated for dinner. This way, we won’t have to set up chairs pew style AND dinner style. (I don’t think our backyard would have room for that anyway!) Here’s a lovely little map I’ve made:

Those are some mad Paint skillz. I think the key to everyone being able to see is to stagger the tables.

The tables won’t have plates on them because we’ll be having a buffet-style dinner, but guests will be welcome to help themselves to drinks for the ceremony. I think this is the best plan of action to maximize space, clutter, and get the most use out of our chairs.

What’s your ceremony seating style? Church pews, traditional rows, a circle?

Tags: reception, tokyo |

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11 Responses to “Cabaret Style”

Guest

spatchet

To make sure everyone can see, I would stagger them the other way, with the two tables closest to the aisle a bit further back and the two outer tables further up. I feel like more people might be able to see the ceremony. It seems like such a cool idea. Plus, it saves a lot of money. Good idea!

8/10/10 @ 2:45 pm (reply)

Member

SandraMarie_1986 (message) 1,363 posts, Bumble bee

I think this is a great idea. And I agree with spatchet…I would stagger them the other way. But I think it would be the perfect way to utilize the chivalry chairs and the space in the backyard.

8/10/10 @ 2:54 pm (reply)

Member

chexmixDC (message) 365 posts, Helper bee

This is what we’re doing for our restaurant wedding! Everyone will find their seats after the cocktail hour, and we’ll have our ceremony on the dance floor. I think that’s a great idea for a backyard wedding.

8/10/10 @ 3:05 pm (reply)

Member

sapphirebride (message) 1,747 posts, Bumble bee

We definitely thought about doing this. I had never heard it called cabaret style, but the name makes sense. We’ve opted for doing a traditional “row” ceremony and then cocktail style seating for the reception. I hate our chairs so I have the opposite problem–I want to get rid of them!

8/10/10 @ 3:18 pm (reply)

Bee

Miss Plaid (message) 769 posts, Busy bee

Oh wow, that sounds like an awesome alternative and definitely nice not having to worry about flipping everything from the ceremony to the reception!

8/10/10 @ 3:41 pm (reply)

Member

SabrinaR424 (message) 266 posts, Helper bee

We did cabaret style seating for our wedding, which was held in a restaurant. I don’t have any great pictures of the whole room, but you can sort of get an idea of it here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/smromero/4698489743/in/set-72157624170891797/
(We’re facing our parents in that photo as the officiant reads our words of thanks to them. For the rest of the ceremony, we faced each other.) We had some trouble arranging the tables such that every guest would have an un-obstructed view of the ceremony, but we figured they could just scoot their chairs left or right to get a better view. It worked out great.

8/10/10 @ 5:32 pm (reply)

Member

jlp2w71611 (message) 298 posts, Helper bee

What a great idea! We are having our ceremony at a church & reception at a separate venue so I don’t need to worry about this but good luck & I think you’re on the right track for sure!

8/11/10 @ 12:01 am (reply)

Member

emielli (message) 25 posts, Newbee

Great idea!

8/11/10 @ 12:30 pm (reply)

Member

nicoliolihpf (message) 230 posts, Helper bee

I don’t know about this. No matter what you do, people are going to be craning their necks unless they actually turn their chairs around which people in general seem to be too lazy to do. If I were doing this, I’d have the chairs facing forward traditional style and then move in the tables and set up the chairs around them after the ceremony. However, I realize that that would be a pain in the ass, so maybe your way would work if you set the chairs up facing the alter? Then people could turn them back toward the tables to eat.

8/12/10 @ 10:09 pm (reply)

10.

Bee

Miss Glasses (message) 2,741 posts, Sugar bee

@spatchet: @SandraMarie_1986: Alright, I’ll try it out. Thanks!

@SabrinaR424: Ooooh, thank you for sending a picture my way. Your ceremony was beautiful, I love the pomanders on the shephard hooks!

@nicoliolihpf: Thanks for the suggestion buddy! I’ll try that out too!

8/13/10 @ 8:49 am (reply)

11.

Bee

Mrs. Sewing (message) 2,701 posts, Sugar bee

ohh, i do like the staggering idea. i’m sure people will adjust themselves to see properly, just put any disabled/handicapped guests in prime spots so they don’t have to move around much!

8/22/10 @ 11:26 pm (reply)