Here are some super ways to assign seating for your reception.Use a large piece of poster board and draw your table arrangement on it.Use a jar lid, saucer or rectangular box lid to draw the tables. Your caterer can give you a small scale layout of your reception room, and then enlarge it to poster size. It doesn’t have to be drawn perfectly, just so it is usable. Make a list of all of your RSVP’s (including bride, groom, attendants, and parents).
Write the names of the bride, groom, and wedding party in the box for the head table, then make reserved tables for the parents and families, and fill in the names. Now start assigning tables for the guests. Try to mix guests of the bride with guests of the groom. Remember you are assigning names to tables, not seats. Let the guests decide who to sit next to at the tables. If you know certain people will not be comfortable together at the same table, and then don’t put them together.
Also, try to put elderly guests away from the band or DJ’s speakers.No worries for your wedding planner,we’ll have no time to sit! Don’t forget to draw the dance floor, cake table and gift table on the diagram. After you are done with table assignments, make a list (on paper) of who is assigned to each table, and give this to the person in charge of the place cards at the reception in case of any confusion. Don’t forget to assign (ask) someone to be in charge of the gift table, the place card table and the guest book. This could all be on the same table or several. Arrange the place cards alphabetically on a table outside the entrance to the reception. Also, ask someone to bring the guest book from the ceremony to the reception for late arrivals.
Happy Beginnings, Mike
