Organizing The Seating Arrangement At Your Wedding

Doing the seating arrangement at your wedding or any event can be a trying experience, especially when you don't have a systematic method to creating one.  When you have different families and personalities with different interests, random placement can turn into complete chaos on a day that you probably want to be as calm and happy as can be.

Here are a few suggestions that I've come across as a wedding reception planner as well as from experience from my own wedding:

• Make more than one list utilizing Excel. If you know your way around Access, that's even better:
• List 1 - List everyone you have invited to your wedding from both sides of the family, including children as separate line items. Once you've done that, determine the CATEGORY for each guest - A = Groom, B = Bride, C = Child. Make another column RESPONSE for whether or not they are attending and enter Y or N once you begin to receive invitation responses.
• List 2 - Copy and paste List 1 into another spreadsheet (just add a tab to the same file). Sort the category column in ascending order, then by the Response column in descending order so that you have all the people attending on the top of the list.  At this time, add another column TABLE #. Once you have filled in a table number for each guest, then sort in ascending order so you can get all the guests names for each table together.

When determining seating arrangements, consider placing people together who have similar interests.  You may not want to put 2 people together who have a lot of drama and conflict with one another. However, keep in mind that you may want people to mingle with each other instead of staying within their own circles or cliques.  Generally, you may want to move elderly guests away from the dance floor or entertainment as they may not enjoy the loud music.  It is also recommended that there be one or two tables designated for children which is located away from any buffet tables.  Each table should hold anywhere from 8-10 guests, depending on the set-up options at the venue.

I have also come across similar methods of setting up a seating arrangement at weddings here.  Whatever your preference is in a method, the key is to be as organized as possible so that you can rest easy and enjoy your day. :-)