Why bother?

AmyLaurel89

I'm planning a wedding for an anticipated 150 or so guests. I know my friends and family will mingle and won't stay put. Also I'm doing the food buffet style. Is there a reason I NEED to plan the seating or do place cards. When deciding who to invite I thought about who would sit together and so it wouldn't be that hard I just don't want to assign the seating. Is this like middle school lunch room? Also its a waste of money for the place cards.

mbcdefg

I would think about your crowd. Tables are always assigned in my inner circle, so I think people would be confused by open seating. Meanwhile, other people here say that open seating works best for their crowd. So as long as you have enough seating for all your guests, do whatever works for you.

2dBride

We're not doing assigned seating for ours.  We're having buffet serving, so it's not like the servers need to know where to put each plate.  Pretty much all the guests will know each other, so I would much rather have them able to change tables and chat with different people during the course of the evening, than to have them feeling like they have to stay in one place.

Leah&Christian09

I wanted to do assigned tables, but in the last few busy weeks before the wedidng, it got thrown out. We did chairs for 120 and had about 100 guests. It worked out perfect. Everyone was able to find a table with people they knew, and there were plenty of seats left over where people collected and chatted and bounced around. Most of the 8-10 top tables had 6 or so for dinner. It worked out perfectly. I've been to a few weddings without assigned seating where there was just enough or less than enough seating and it was a PITA, and a few where there was excess seating and it worked fine. I would do seats for 175ish and go with it. For us, plenty of tables and chairs were included with our venue, so it didn't cost extra. If you're renting the tables and chairs, extra seating may cost a lot more than place cards.

wcvsb3b5

I would do a seating chart only if you are going to have the exact same number of chairs as you are guests. Otherwise people will sit wherever and make it so other will have to move a chair to a different table just to sit with their spouse/kids. Otherwise I would just let them sit wherever they would like. I'm not creating a seating chart, I would rather let my guests choose where to sit (and chances are they are going to sit with the same people you were planning them to sit with anyway)

trix1223

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} Doing table assignments is actually a courtesy to your guests. It ensures that people who don't get along won't end up stuck with each other because they're the only open seats left. It ensures that couples or families won't be split up because there are not enough seats left at any given table when they arrive. It ensures that Great Aunt Hilda won't be seated with your FIs college frat brothers, or that Grandpa Al won't end up sitting right next to the dj's speakers. It ensures that your college roommate, who doesn't know anyone but you at the wedding, won't wander the room hoping that she can sit somewhere. (Remember the cafeteria in Jr. High?) It ensures that you won't have 11 people jammed into a table that seats 8 comfortably because people decided to pull up chairs so they could all sit together. It also saves you $$, because when you don't have assigned tables, you need to have extras because you WILL end with tables of 4 where you intended to have 8. I've only been to one wedding without table assignments, and it was a holy mess as people wandered around trying to figure out where they were supposed to sit. Do table assignments.

danieliza1127

Most people on the Knot say to do assigned seating, but in my area no one assigns seats, even for 300 guest weddings and I've never had a problem with it.  Just make sure you have a couple extra tables than you need so people can spread out and make sure they get to sit with who they want to sit with.

hollieheidi

We are doing assigned tables, but not actual seats.  We are also having a buffet and centerpiece cakes on each table.  The only reason we're doing assigned tables is that 3 - 4 couples are vegan and their cake will be a vegan version of the others.  Otherwise, we wouldn't be doing it at all.  We're planning on having 88 guests (invited) and seating for 100, but will cut the number accordingly closer to the date. 

tracy_k

I've been to wedding with assigned tables and weddings without, and none have ever been a holy mess. I'm not even providing seating for everyone, as we're having a cocktail style "stations" party. Folks can mingle and wander and chat, and there will be seating for maybe 50% of the guests to sit at any one time. And a big table where the ladies can leave their purses, of course!

Deidra123

We're having seated and served, non-buffet and I refuse to do a seating chart. I feel like - just sit down wherever you like or with people you want to get to know. Gosh, why does it have to be more complicated than that. We're not in high school anymore.  I assume that everyone has moderately reasonable social skills and can simply talk to whoever is at the table at which they sit.  I just don't see couples wandering around b/c each table left only has one seat.  They can simply use some social skills and ask someone at any one of the tables if they will swap so that there are two seats together - it happens everyday on airplanes.Just let people sit wherever they want to sit and save yourself some headache, time and money b/c you can skip the place cards.