Wedding Planning: Table Sizes and Seating Charts

Once you have your guest list, it’s time to figure out how and where to seat everyone. First, you’ll want to figure out what types of tables you’ll be using.

Traditionally, round tables are a popular option. We also love the trend of mixing table shapes like rounds, squares and rectangles. Between your ideas and our experience in designing within our event spaces, we’ll come up with the perfect layout to fit your vision.

Here’s how many people we can fit at each table:

Wedding Planning: Table Sizes and Seating Charts | Rev Mill Events

TO ASSIGN SEATS OR TABLES?

We recommend for you to assign a place for guests to sit – either a table or specific chair. When guests first arrive, they are looking for direction. Minimizing confusion on where to sit creates a smoother event and welcoming environment for your guests.

Guests can be assigned a specific table, where they will choose a seat, or they can be assigned a specific chair. Either approach will work well, you can decide what’s right for you.

SEATING CHART

Once your guest list and layout is finalized, it’s time to work on your seating chart. Unfortunately, this task must wait until close to the wedding after all the RSVPs have come in.

We suggest working through this task with your partner and other decision makers, so you can talk through the potential issues of where to place each guest.

It's helpful to start by grouping people that already know each other - think tables of families, coworkers, and college friends. However, mixing in a few people that don’t know each other yet will keep things fun and get everyone making new friends.

A few quick tips:

Group people who don’t know each other with those who are similar ages or have shared interests
Try to balance male and female guests at each table
Make sure not to put ex-partners together or people who you know don’t like each other
Instead of having a leftover or “single” table, mix in guests who fit this category at the other tables
Try to place elderly guests where they’ll have easy access to the restroom and away from the music speakers

SEATING CHARTS, PLACE CARDS, AND MORE

Once you’ve got your seating chart set up, you’ll want to make sure your guests know where they’ll be seated. If you have assigned guests to specific seats, you will need to create a seating chart, table numbers, and place cards. If you’ve assigned tables you can skip the place cards.

We suggest a poster sized chart you can display near the entrance to the seating area. You can organize your seating chart by either alphabetical guest name or table. Depending on the size of your party, listing alphabetically makes it easier for people to find their names.

You’ll want to make sure table numbers are easy to read and are prominently displayed on the table, but not so large they keep guests from being able to see each other across the table.