Seating for parents at reception?

karenmruff

Hi all,

I am starting our seating chart (I'm one of the last weddings of the month), and I ran into a situation where my mom and I have very different ideas.  She thinks that she and my dad should sit with F's parents, where I think that they should each sit with their friends and/or family who are travelling to be there. 

Part of the confusion came from her thinking there would be a head table.  I think I've got her convined about the sweetheart table now, but she still wants to sit with F's parents.

I'm inclined to just let her do this, but I'm a little concerned that F's parents will be upset that they can't sit with family.  Am I over-thinking this?  What did y'all do?

pharmd2323

I've been looking around for an answer to the same question - in fact, I was convinced I wrote the original post in my sleep and never knew about it until now - that is how similar our circumstances are!! I'm not even kidding you - big blow up fight over it with my mom. She said she would be furious if she doesn't get to sit with my fiance's parents. Frankly, with the number of seats per table and how many guests we have - it simply mathematically will not work out. I don't want a table of 5 and a table of 10 all in the same room. Especially when they can each have their tables and everything works out evenly! I think parents, or at least in my case, take it as an insult or something, like we're embarrassed of them, and don't want the two sets of parents to mingle. If it helps anyone, Emily Post's 2011 book says it is customary for the parents to have 2 separate tables. I know some people love her, some hate her, etc. but just thought I'd throw it out there in case anyone needs a reference for the battle with the parents haha. I hope everything works out for you - as I'm sure it will! No one will even remember that they put up a fight about the seating chart in the first place once they get to the wedding!