When you are planning your wedding, at some point you will come to the question of whether or not to have a table plan. Like with most wedding decisions, there is no right or wrong answer – well, it depends what the question is and how many gins I’ve had! However, from an experienced wedding coordinator’s perspective, there are few key practicalities to consider.
Thank you to Vikki Kelly Photography for this image at The Shack Revolution in Hereford.
Sit where you like is not always care free and fun
Lots of couples romanticise the idea of letting their guests sit where they like for the wedding breakfast. Usually this is at weddings which have a more informal vibe and perhaps have chosen a street food style caterer. However, this can easily turn into chaos as guests umm and arrr about where to sit, you get annoying one seat gaps between groups, your wedding party ends up at the other side of the room and your strange Great Aunt Vera bags the seat next to you for the whole meal. Less than ideal. But fear not, there are a few steps you can take to stop this from happening.
Have reserved seats
Simple but effective. Similar to having reserved seats for your ceremony, have a handful of seats reserved around the table where you will be sitting. This means that you can guarantee you will have your most special people sitting next to you and your wedding party (i.e. your parents) can relax and not worry about not being sat near you
Thank you to Gabrielle Davies Photography for this image at Moat Hall Barns, Shropshire
Name your tables
Even if you are not having a seating plan you can still name your tables at your wedding. This will mainly help your caterers, especially if they are doing table service and you have guests with dietary requirements. If you name your tables, you can either pre-ask your guests with diatries to choose seats on a specific table and let your caterer know this in advance. Or, once your guests have chosen their seats, either your on-the-day wedding coordinator or catering front of house can go around your tables checking for diatries. If you have named your tables then they will be able to make clear lists of which diatries are on which tables – instead of having to make up their own table descriptions. Even if you don’t have a table plan, just knowing that on ‘Barcelona’ there are five vegans means service can be done much quicker, as staff can go straight to that table, rather than searching across the whole room.
Ask guests to find their seats in waves
Instead of doing a large announcement to all your guests asking them to find your seats. Get your wedding coordinator and Bridesmaids/Ushers to ask your guests one group at a time to find their seats. This should be manageable as during welcome drinks guests tend to huddle in groups. Then, pick a table to fill first and direct guests there. Doing this should help manage the flow of guests to the tables and make it easier for people to make the decision of where to sit, as they won’t be lost in a huge swarm of people trying to find a seat.
Of course, if you decide to have a table plan at your wedding then you don’t need to worry about any of this! As long as you display your table plan in an easy to read place, with plenty of space for guests to stand, then seating your guests for your wedding breakfast should be relatively simple.
If you book Oak and Opal (me!) for your on-the-day wedding coordination and you are choosing not to have a table plan, then during your Handover Meeting we would discuss all the logistics around seating your guests – so there is also no need to worry!
That was a very unsubtle plug at the end, wasn’t it…