Do I have to have ushers?

Ihaveapanda

I honestly hadn't even thought of ushers until now.  I'm having a 150 person wedding, outside.  It's very casual, not formal at all.  I have seven GM, could they seat people if needed? Can't I just put "reserved" signs on front row and let everyone else fend for themselves or is that very rude?

SarahPLiz

YOur GM can definitely seat your guests, especially if its informal. There should be someone assisting guests, but you don't have to have specific ushers.

bablingbrooke

It can't hurt to have a couple people help people get to their seats, particularly elderly family members.  But you definitely don't have to have them.

I will say this: We weren't going to have ushers because like you we thought "our guests aren't idiots, they can seat themselves!".  My mom convinced us to ask two of my pre-teen cousins to be ushers a few weeks before.  I'm actually glad now that we did.  140 people coming into one space can be chaotic and apparently having two eighth graders direct them made things run very smoothly.

stina93446

You don't have to have ushers if you don't want to. You can have gm double as ushers also.

simplebride_24

I am having approx 160 people at our wedding and I knew that ushers would be a good idea just to help out grandparents and other guests just in case.  It works well, since my step-brother and my FI's half-brother now get to do something!

kmm2150

Like you said, one thing ushers are for is reserved seating protection, but this is totally not necessary - I think anyone over the age of 12 knows that the front rows are for family, and most weddings I've been to lately don't make a big thing of "bride's side, groom's side..." - have groomsmen there as usher-doubles as people start arriving and you'll be fine.  (We did have ushers, though, just to have a way to include a few more people who weren't able to be groomsmen).

robindina

The only reason I'm having an usher is one of my guy friends asked to be an usher when I told him that I was engaged...otherwise I would have the usher do double duty

cukimerrydoll

With a large WP, it sounds like you won't need them.  I guess standard is to start with 2, and add 1 more once you hit 50, add 1 at 100, etc.  And that would count GMs.

So for a wedding of 150, 5 GMs would suffice.

We're having 5 GMs and probably 2 ushers.  The guest list is at 250 for the reception, but for people who aren't involved in the process, it's probably between 200 and 225.

[Deleted User]

I had no plans for seating charts or ushers...you know, let people sit where they want and with whom they want...until I realized that sometimes there are family members who might need to be kept apart in case any of them accidentally ending up together (i.e. divorced parents).  Plus, this way no one fights over the best seat.