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Developing a seating chart doesn't have to be
a nightmare! It's a logic problem-and like any logic problem, there are tricks
for doing it quickly and easily.
Take out your master list of guests and divide it into logical groups (your
parents' friends, his parents' friends, friends from work, friends from high
school, relatives, etc.). Guests will go so far as to rearrange place cards in
order to be with "their group," so you might as well work with this
tendency, rather than trying to fight it. The separate lists allow you to see
roughly how many seats you're likely to need for each clique.
Wait until all of the RSVPs for a given group are back (including the people you
have to phone to ask if they're coming before you start assigning tables to that
group). If you start early, you'll end up reshuffling.
What do you do if a group contains 12 people who accept, and a table only holds
10 people? Split the group evenly in half, six people to a table, and put them
at adjacent tables. Fill in the other four seats at each table with
"unmatched" people: the couple from a former job who don't know anyone
else, the cousin whose parents didn't come, etc. The partial group will get
conversation started, and there will be enough "extras" that they're
likely to feel comfortable joining in.
If you start assigning seats while you still have a few RSVPs out (for instance,
people who haven't returned your calls), start with eight seats to a table
rather than ten. The extra two seats allows you to drop in compatible people who
RSVP late. If you end up leaving those two seats empty, a table of eight is
still full enough to spark conversation. You are, by the way, better off with
two tables of eight than with one table of ten and one of six. A half- empty
table is depressing to everyone seated at it.
When you encounter people who don't fit readily into a larger group, seat them
with people who are likely to be compatible. People the same age or in similar
fields are a good bet. Single people who have come alone and who don't know
anyone should be seated at tables with as many other single "dateless"
people as possible. If this means your best friend from high school is seated at
a "relatives" table with your three handsome, single cousins, that's
fine. Arranging people so that they're likely to have a good time is far more
important than maintaining strict protocol boundaries.
It's up to you whether you use one place card per person or per family (or
couple). Either way, you run the risk of "losing" someone if you
rearrange tables without checking your work carefully. With one card per family,
it's easy to count the people you're moving as "one" rather than
"two" or "three" or however many are represented by the
card. With one card per person, it's easy to move Cousin Mark without
remembering that his girlfriend Brandy Smith has to be moved with him.
When you write out place cards, think seriously about using first and last names
rather than titles. There are two reasons do be a tiny bit less
"formal" with the place cards. First, many married couples with the
same last name don't really like to be addressed as "Mr. and Mrs. John
Smith." Unless you're very confident about your knowledge of your friends'
preferences, you're likely to irritate some. Second, at least some of your
guests will be seated with strangers. It's very helpful for people making new
friends to have a written name in front of them. It would be ideal if John and
Sharon Smith's table mates remembered them as "John and Sharon Smith,"
not "John Smith and… what was his wife's name? Suzy?"
To direct guests to the right table, the simplest method is to put table numbers
(or names) directly on the place cards, then set out the place cards on a table.
An alternative, if you've used the one-card-per-person scheme, is to put all the
cards for the couple/family in an envelope with their family name and the table
number on it. Make sure the table numbers are prominently displayed on the
tables. Do not expect 200 guests to find their tables solely by checking a
schematic posted in the reception hall-you'll have an incredible traffic jam
around the schematic. If you have place cards on the tables, you still need a
little card for each couple/family telling them where to sit.
Put the place card table in a prominent spot near the entrance (or after a
receiving line), but don't put it directly in an entrance where it can create a
bottleneck. One slow guest can create quite a traffic jam. Given a choice
between a square table and a long thin table, take the long thin table! A long
table presents a greater area to the guests, allowing the savvy ones to slip in,
grab their seating information, and slip away.
You will also have to provide seats for anyone you have hired for your
reception. This usually includes the DJ or band members, photographer, and
videographer. A common practice is to simply place these people at available
seats at random tables. While this may seem like a quick and easy solution, it
can make the guests at that table uncomfortable. Realize that most guests at a
wedding table know each other (that’s why you sat them together!) and the
sudden arrival of a total stranger disrupts the dynamic of the table.
Have your reception facility provide a small
table for your hired help. This table doesn’t even have to be in the same
room. It can be in an adjoining unused room, or any vacant room. Most wedding
service professionals prefer to dine with each other, for many will already know
each other and will enjoy and appreciate the opportunity to socialize with their
peers. |
