Ceremony and Vow Ideas
MRDCle
member
Ceremony and Reception Seating





We will be having our ceremony in the same room as our reception. In order to make a smoother transition between ceremony/cocktail hour/reception, the event planner said we could either have seating for about half the guests for the ceremony (hard pass) or have some rows of chairs and the remaining guests seated at their tables for the meal (ceremony would be easily visible/audible, it's not a huge room). Everyone would have a seat, it's just some would be at tables. Is this a huge faux pas?
Re: Ceremony and Reception Seating
My main concern is assigning who gets the "good" seats. I'm not sure whether it's worse to be seated in a sort of secondary seating area for the ceremony (although within easy visibility) or have your chair moved during cocktail hour while others' chairs aren't, but I imagine some of your guests will have a definite idea on which is better.
If not, definitely don't do this - it sounds like the venue is being cheap and doesn't want to provide the staff to do a proper turnover. They should be able to do that during the hour that guests aren't in there.
If it's a problem because cocktail hour is in the same room, I wouldn't necessarily side eye this unless it was such a small wedding that the change wouldn't be huge anyway. I do think you should see if they can provide some extra seating around the walls if it's feasible, so people who are temporarily displaced can still sit down while they wait. (Especially if some of your VIPs are elderly or would otherwise need a place to sit, since they're likely the ones sitting up front.)
@JediElizabeth we are inviting 100. I imagine we'll have around 85-90 but the room will have seating for all. In addition to the rows and the dinner seating, there are about 30 extra seats around the bar and a few couches. Cocktail hour would ideally be held in this room. My fiancé prefers this room to another available room which is why we're running into this. Maybe it'll be the nicest day in March ever and we'll be able to use the outdoor space instead
Here are some examples of couples who made it really pretty: