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Assigned Seating
Assigned seating is a tonne of work but it can make
it easier for guests if they don’t know many of the
other guests. It shows you’ve put real effort into
making them feel comfortable. There are basically
three options for assigned seating. Assign every
seat, assign a group to a table, or general seating
with a few reserved family tables.
Assigning every seat is the most work and the most
formal. It may be necessary if you have guests that
you don’t want to be in the line of sight of each
other because of some family squabble. For this
arrangement you would have place cards at each seat
assigning every guest.
Assigning a group of guests to a table is a nice
compromise. You have the formality and effort of
assigning groups together, but let the guests choose
the actual seat at the table. When the guests
arrive there should be a chart identifying the table
they are assigned. You can then either have a
table with place cards waiting for them to pick up
and take with them to their table or have a list on
the table of the group names.
General seating is good if most of your guests know
each other and feel comfortable sitting with
anyone. However you should still have tables
reserved for key family members to be near the head
table. Make sure there is a list on each table of
their names and that they know they have been
assigned a table.
Know your crowd. Put rowdier friends near the
DJ/speakers as they are sure to talk above the
noise. Put older guests further away. Put new
parents or work friends together so they can talk
about their favorite subjects (babies and new deals)
without boring anyone else. Put both yours and his
friends together as long as they have a common
thread. They can always talk about the two of you
if they run out of small talk. Do your best to make
guests feel good. For example. If your aunt is
recently widowed, don’t seat her with all marrieds.
Put her with supportive family members or old
friends. It’s tempting to be a matchmaker, but it
may be more comfortable sitting single people with
those they know. Use a variety of table shapes as
available. They may give you the flexibility
needed. Put long rectangular tables on the
periphery and rounds in the middle.
Be sure not to leave this to the last minute. Have
it done a week in advance, but don’t ‘print’ your
final copies until the day or two before, because
there will be changes. If possible use a
spreadsheet program to organize the names. It’s
much easier to do this electronically than with
pencil or post-its. Use two columns for each name
separating first name from last. That way you can
sort alphabetically by last name or first. When you
make a seating chart, it’s a good idea to have two
lists. One sorted alphabetically and the other
sorted by table number. That way when a group
arrives together, they can just look up one of their
names and then see from the table assignment they
are seated all together. |
