Ceremony w/ guests seated at their tables?

offbeat9

Has anyone seen this done? My family is suggesting this so that we don't have to rent/set up a ton of extra chairs for our short outdoor ceremony. The tables at the venue are 16ft long picnic tables that I can arrange any way I want. We will have between 8-10 tables. 

I like the idea because I won't have to spend money on chairs that will be used for 30 mins tops but not completely sold on it... I can't see how there will be an 'aisle' or how photos will look. Any suggestions from anyone who did this or has seen it done? 

lydiagg

I did not do that at my wedding but I did attend a wedding where they did do that. It was a little awkward because the bridal party walked inbetween the tables and people didn't realize at first that they had started so they were still up and walking around. Also depending on where you were seated it was hard to see the ceremony. You had to kind to tilt left to right on your chair to see. If you can come up with an arrangement where is good visability for everyone then I say go for it. If you arrange them so there is an aisle on each side of the section ( think like a church with two aisle leading to the front and the pews as the picnic tables ) you might be able to create an aisle.  Another thing to try and do is cut out pieces of paper the same length and play around with the size space you have to see what would work the best? Depending on how you line up the picnic tables you might be able to add bows or candles ( mason jars with candles if you are having an outdoor wedding) that create a line ? Personally I wasn't a fan of sitting at my table for the ceremony but if you get creative you might can make it work !

Hope this helps and can't wait to see pics if you do have everyone seated !

rcolt45

I did this at my first wedding and LOVED IT!!!!  IT made life so easy.

offbeat9

@ lydiagg- you make some really good points. I think some kind of aisle would be necessary so people "get it"  and aren't interrupting the ceremony to get up and get an appetizer or something!! Thanks for the thoughts!

@rcolt45, it definitely simplifies things. I'm glad I know it worked well for someone. 

jnissa

I went to a wedding like this last year and it was awful from a guest perspective. I'm sure it's lower work, but the truth is your guests will probalby be doing exactly what all of the guests at this wedding were doing, which was talking about how awkward it was. Plus, it just felt like you were at dinner theater the whole time. Everybody's wedding has to be unique to them, but I know that nobody I talked to at that wedding has a positive review of being at the tables the entire time. 

offbeat9

Thanks for sharing your experience. We're still trying to decide if we'll do that or not. I'm definitely torn - we are doing a self uniting ceremony so it's going to be super fast... pretty much just our own vows. But I agree, it just isn't ideal or as pretty when you're sitting there with your plate and silverware in front of you! We would have to go to the venue the morning of and set the chairs up (among other things: setting the tables, etc) if we set up a separate ceremony area, so it'll be twice the work - all before I even get ready. Yuck! I'll let you guys know the verdict and what works out!