One of the more painstaking pieces of wedding planning is the seating chart. No one really grasps how taxing this planning is until they’ve had to do it first-hand. Not only is there a lot of worry over who will sit where, but who will like who, who won’t want to look at another, who will be seated closest and furthest away from the bride and groom and so on and so on.  We’ve even heard a story about a mother-in-law who sat so close to the bathrooms that she took the seat to be an insult and spent years not talking to the couple post-wedding.

Before you pull your hair out trying to make everyone happy, take a deep breath and begin your seating chart with these few helpful hints.

1. As the RSVPs start to roll in, use multi-colored post-it flags to help easily identify who’s who.  Categories are as simple as HER family, HIS family, WORK friends, and FRIENDS.  As you being to place them at their respective tables, you’ll have a clear visual of what the room will look like.

 

2. Don’t worry so much about assigning people to actual seats. By human nature, people love to change seats!  You can’t control who will sit facing where so just assign them to a table and let them figure out the details. They’ll find a way to make it work. By the end of the night, one table will end up with 20 seats at it and a few will end up completely empty.

 

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3. Every wedding will end up with the “leftover” guests-  the singles, the friends who don’t know a soul in the place (other than you) , etc.   Try to find a table that these individuals will have a good time with. This is a time for fun- not to be awkwardly forced into engaging with people who have zero in common. Someone will end up feeling like the odd man out.

 

4. If you really can’t/won’t deal with the dramatics that come with seating charts, you can always just say “to heck with it” and let folks seat themselves.

 

 

** Extra Seating Tip from Michael Rock:

People will always seat their 95 year old grandmother RIGHT IN FRONT of the DJ.  You can imagine the problem this creates when the DJ's only job is to play loud music all night long. Sit folks with a sensitivity to sound farthest away from the speakers when possible.

JOHN GOMEZ
JOHN GOMEZ
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Keep the seats around the dance floor for your friends and family who are most likely to be getting up (and staying up!) to dance all night long.

 

 

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