Wedding Reception Seating Plan

A wedding seating plan allows you to choose who sits where and who sits with whom. This allows guests to find their ‘place’ in the reception room quickly, and also helps your caterer to know exactly where guests with specific menu choices are sitting. Finally, it means you can seat people together who you feel will get on well (or apart if you think they won’t!).

The shape of the room will play a large part in determining the way in which the tables are arranged to create a great atmosphere.

Top Tips

• Remember, if the tables are spread too far apart your guests will feel very isolated at their tables. If you place the tables too close together guests will feel uneasy and not have any room to extend their chairs.
• Spare a thought for elderly guests. If your evening entertainment is in the same room as your wedding breakfast, it can be best to sit them furthest away from the music.
• Keep all children relatively close to their parents so they can be supervised.
• Traditionally, parents of the bride and groom sit on the top table. However, in some cases, this doesn't work well. If, for example, parents are divorced and perhaps remarried and relationships are strained, consider an alternative option.
• Pay particular consideration to guests who know very few people, sit them with guests who will be friendly and welcoming. Equally, separate guests who you know don’t get on well. Your wedding is not the time to mend family feuds or force friends to get along.
• Hand out seating cards when the guests arrive with the table name or number inside. There is a traditional order for seating the bridal party. If rectangular, the top table seating is in this order, from left to right facing the guests: chief bridesmaid, groom’s father, bride’s mother, bride, bride’s father, groom’s mother, best man. 

Picture shows the layout of the ballroom at The Winter Gardens, Weston-super-Mare.

We hope this helps.

Wendy & Matthew

Spirit Wedding Cars