I'm pretty sure the answer here is already clear, but:
Our reception space is partly outdoors, partly in, and the indoors space is in two rooms - a long hall where the ceremony will be and a fairly typical reception hall. The ceremony space will be changed over to reception seating - I've been at previous events in the space and they are pros; the changeover should be ten minutes, tops. Extremely large sliding doors - like barn door size - will be open between the spaces.
I had really wanted to do table numbers, because it does seem like people like knowing they have a seat with their whole group and with other people they know. We weren't going to do individual place cards, just tables.
But there's no way to do that with these three separate (connected, but distinct) spaces, is there? (Ten tables in the reception space, six outside, five in the ceremony space.) I can't predict who would like to sit outside, or who might prefer the quieter switched-over ceremony space (farther from the band). And a table in the ceremony space would mean guests have to wait. Not for very long, but it would still be unfair, right?
(Outside tables are, of course, weather permitting - we can squeeze the necessary tables into the inside spaces if the weather is NOT permitting, it will just mean less dance floor and less flow between tables.)