Hi,
I am having a wedding at Warner Pacific College in Portland. I decided to post this on the Portland board because we all know about picnics and going out to enjoy the outdoors on the few rare days it is sunny. I am having the wedding in a beautiful little chapel, and the reception on the lawn across the street. I whill have a tent, 12 tables and 10 chairs at each table (120 people)... There will also be picnic blankets so kids can eat on the ground (most of them are of the age they can eat by themselves and parents will be warned the reception is casual) or at tables. I can even see some families taking a blanket and eating picnic style with their kids or significant other. I want this all out in the sunshine (July 10th wedding) and don't plan on assigning seating. I don't want people to be uncomfortable, or be forced to sit with people they don't know...but in reality, there are some people in my life that don't know any other people in my life, and none of my people know any of his people. I want the whole thing to be casual, people to mingle, us to mingle with everyone...we are going to have lawn games out for people to play, bubbles and an area for the kids to have some space.
Do you think it is okay in such a casual setting that I not assign seats, and also, if I don't is it okay for me not to have any extra seating, since several people probably won't be sitting at the tables anyway? This wedding is overwhelming me already, and to add a seating chart to it is just going to add to the stress.
We do have a backup plan for an indoor reception, in which case the tables would be different shapes, and the seating chart would be irrelivant anyway.