Deciding on who sits where is often one of the more tricky tasks when planning your wedding. You have to take into consideration all manner of things from family tiffs, to who to sit the unmarried uncle next to. Pinterest has a huge amount of ideas for seating plans so this is just a brief overview.
There are many different options and designs for seating plans you can consider when deciding how to announce to your guests where they are sitting for the all-important wedding breakfast, below are a few of the classics alongside our favourite current trends for 2021, enjoy!
The Classic
The traditional table plan, usually placed at the entrance of the Dining Room or Marquee, will detail the guest’s table location and number. These can be homemade (a trip to HobbyCraft will have you stocked and ready to get creative in no time), from a kit via the internet (TablePlans offer a great selection and range of themes) or designed and produced by a Wedding Stationers….the possibilities are endless!
Birds in a row
Using a birdcage as the centre of your table plan has been popular for the past few years, particularly at English Country Garden themed weddings where they tie in very nicely with the marquee, bunting and blowsy blooms. For the talented DIY-ers out there, a quick search on eBay should source you a beautiful birdcage that you then simply dress with flowers (real or artificial) and attach a card for each table detailing the names of the guests – et voila, hand-crafted and cost-effective.
Hanging Tree
A small amount of creativity for a big result! Hanging Trees simply require a beautiful container (for example a large glass square vase for a contemporary wedding or a large metal water jug for a country garden wedding) and the prettiest branches you can find – these can either be from your garden or purchased from a local garden centre. You then attach cards to the branches detailing the guests and which table they are seated at. The branches can also be ‘dressed’ to match the theme of your big day – miniature bunting, pearls, ribbons, etc…
Rustic Charm
To give your wedding a rustic ‘outdoor’ feel; you could consider a variation on the more traditional escort cards. Small squares of a chalkboard can be personalised with each guests name and placed on a picnic table outside of your Dining Room or Marquee. Team them with gingham napkins, brushed metal votive holders and native flowers for a relaxed, rural Californian type feel!
A few top tips for table planning for seating plans:
With divorced/remarried parents, the top table seating arrangement can cause headaches. Consider not have a traditional top table and instead, each set of parents/step parents can host their own tables – filled with their close friends, they will feel comfortable and in their element.
To save disagreements whilst deciding who to sit where – colour-code your guests (family, close friend, work colleague) on sticky notes which you can move around the paper ‘tables’ until you are happy that each table has the right mix of people.
However tempting it is, try not to sit two single friends next to each other – they will see through your matchmaking motives in an instant!
