Ten Tips for a Successful Wedding Seating Plan

Arranging your seating plan can be one of the hardest parts of planning a wedding. You've got people you need to sit together such as family and friends, people you daren't sit together, and perhaps people you're just not sure where to sit. You're often constrained by certain sized tables or room layouts and need to give special consideration to your younger and older guests.

These tips should help you to arrange your wedding seating plan with as little stress as possible.

1. Firstly decide whether you actually need a formal seating plan. For smaller weddings you probably don't need arranged seating, but for larger events it's certainly recommended. Without some form of seating plan it can take guests 20 or 30 minutes to get seated with people wandering around trying to find tables with enough free seats for their group.

2. Keep groups together. Start your seating plan by putting family groups, friends, neighbours and colleagues on their own tables. This way you'll make good early progress on your plan and will probably end up placing the majority of your guests.

3. Never try to use your seating plan as an opportunity to match make. Sometimes it makes sense to sit singles together but don't do this deliberately. It will be obvious and they won't thank you for it.

4. It's always a good idea to keep younger children with their parents although you might think about a separate table for older children. Buy some cheap colouring books and crayons and put them on the tables to keep the children entertained during the meal.

5. You should consider where you sit elderly relatives. You don't want to sit them right at the back where they might struggle to hear any speeches and at the same time you don't want to sit them right underneath a speaker where they might moan about the noise!

6. The usual etiquette is to sit males and females alternately around the table although don't worry too much about this if you've got odd numbers.

7. The closest tables to the top/head table are usually reserved for immediate family and closest friends.

8. Table names or numbers are a good way of identifying each table. Many people these days are going for names rather than numbers. You can tie it into your chosen theme and names don’t have the perceived hierarchy that numbers might have.

9. If they’ve been invited, unless they’re still really close, you probably want to seat ex partners of the Bride and Groom as far from the top table as you can! For ex-partners of other guests, just use your common sense. If they’re still getting on then it’s probably fine to seat them at the same table. Otherwise, seat them elsewhere.

10. Don’t feel you need to stick with tradition. There are traditional top table arrangements but if things would work better for you a different way, then do it! There are great alternatives such as having the wedding party each ‘hosting’ a separate table, a romantic top table for two or a long banquet style table for all guests, with the Bride and Groom in the middle.

Using seating planning software such as Toptableplanner is a great way of making the job of arranging your seating plan easier. You can drag and drop your guests onto tables and easily rearrange them until you've created the perfect layout.

Couple Spend Just £1000 on their Wedding

Is it possible to plan a wedding without breaking the bank? A couple from Lancashire have proved that it certainly is by spending a mere £1000 on their wedding. This included everything, from outfits to the reception. They didn't just have a handful of guests either with 25 attending the daytime reception and 100 for the evening function. Family and friends chipped in to help, with the bride's mother making the cake and other relatives helping to prepare the wedding breakfast.

The couple didn't want to start their married life in the red like many couples who take out large loans to pay for extravagant weddings. The ceremony was held in the nearby church with the reception in the groom's parents' converted garage. With only 25 guests they probably didn't need a seating plan, but a garage seating plan would certainly have been different!

Original article source - telegraph.co.uk