The dreaded wedding seating plan. Who sits where? Which of your work colleagues will get along? Who is open to making new friends? It’s your Big Day but you have to think about everyone else when creating your seating plan!
A well-designed seating plan can bring blissful harmony to your wedding reception and allow everyone to enjoy your wedding day. Deciding where your guests will sit on the other hand… yep, it can be stressful.
Fortunately, we are here to help. As leading event caterers in London, we have decades of experience in creating perfect seating plans, and we have bundled up our top tips to ensure your wedding reception goes without a hitch.
Let’s get started…
1: Think Shapes and Numbers
The shapes of your tables and the number of tables available will dictate where people sit, so think about what kind of tables your venue provides before designing your seating plan. It’s also a good idea to check with your venue if square or rectangular tables can be joined together to make squares, zigzags or other unusual shapes.
Once you’ve found out your table shapes and numbers, confirm the number of guests you have coming to your wedding. Then you can calculate how many guests you can fit on to each table. If you’ve got more seats than guests, you’ll have more room to manoeuvre with table numbers or positions.
2: Ask Your Parents
You’ll probably find that your guest list consists of a few of your parent’s friends. But how do you know who gets on with who? Ask your parents!
While you and your partner get to choose where guests sit, it’s still worth seeking advice from your parents. Afterall, you don’t want your wedding reception consisting of “Aunt Julie” squabbling with “Aunt Jan” about that sausage dinner incident that happened 30-years ago!
3: Categorise your Friends
When thinking about your seating plan, think about categorising your friends into groups. These categories could be based on how you know them such as school friends, work friends or mutual friends of you and your partner. Once you’ve sorted out the categories, you may want to consider arranging half a table of one group and half of another. This is a popular seating arrangement which helps guest to mingle.
4: Don’t Single Out
Nobody wants to be reminded that they’re single at a wedding! While your romantic pre-wedding mood may make you feel like playing cupid, try to avoid forcing single people into sitting next to prospective husbands and wives. At the very best, it’s going to cause an uncomfortable atmosphere.
5: Work Your Space
Traditionally in a wedding, the top table overlooks all the other tables. But this is your Big Day and your seating plan can look however you want it to.
Think about the space you have and visit your venue to look for the best views from your reception room. Reception venues in London will offer different kinds of views to destination weddings, so it’s important to look at your venue before deciding on a seating plan.
Your wedding seating plan should allow your guests to see each other as much as possible, so take a good look around your reception room and consider the different ways you could position your tables. Let your creativity flow.
6: Draw it Up
Once you have an idea on a basic seating plan, draw it up on your computer. There are plenty of great apps available that will help you to design your seating plan and most of them allow you to drag and drop tables around the room. Seeing your plan on “on paper” will give you a better idea of how your venue will look on the Big Day and help you to make adjustments if some guests can no longer attend.
We hope these tips help you to create the perfect seating plan for your wedding. Here’s to a day of love and laughter!
Laguna are experienced caterers in London at a range of London venues. Get in touch with us today