seating chart v open seating

cmmosley81

i am not sure if i should seat my guests or let them seat themselves.

elmcity bride

My cousin got married a few years back and we did open seating, everyone (especially old people) were really confused. so if you go with open seating i would have a least a few tables for older folks and maybe your parents etc

jennylove810

No need to assign seats, but at least assign tables.  It's a minor headache now that will save your guests a lot of headaches that day.

starshollow

Definitely at least assign tables.  It is awkward as a guest to walk up to a table and ask people if you can join them, especially if you dont know anyone else at the wedding.

Vanessa630

Definitely assign tables. You can also make sure that the older people aren't stuck right next to the speakers, etc.  

Karebear852k3

Definitely assign tables.  Open seating would be like high school cafeteria nightmares for people all over again to have to find a seat and risk sitting with people they don't like.  And like Vanessa said, try to be courteous of certain factors in the seating arrangement (ie. elderly people shouldn't be near speakers, wedding party/family seated closer than other relatives/friends).

JessiC21

Assign tables but not specific seats at those tables. If you don't people will shuffle their seats, their plates, their place settings around and you could end up with 15 people sitting crowded at one table and only 2 at another table. It screws up the wait staff because they are probably going by table number, and it has the added effect of becoming a popularity contest.

banana468

Please assign tables.

DH and I just went to a big RD a few weeks ago and we just stood there for five minutes before sitting because we weren't sure where to go.  It makes it so much easier on guests when they know that they're at least at table 3.

kls114

Cannot agree anymore! Assigned tables is the way to go! It takes the guessing out of it!

maxxwed

Ugh it would feel like first day of high school lunch time and not knowing where to sit with a guide.

anaeser1

Ditto with the previous comments! Making it easy for guests is probably the best way to go.

herb0622

I would definitely have assigned seating. It makes it so much easier for the guests that day, as opposed to scrambling around looking for a seat.

ninacapricorn

well i agree with everyone, but I m having a small wedding and thinking of one big long table, so in my case, I wouldnt need a seating chart, just maybe their names at the places...

smore154

Well yeah- if youre having that intimate of a wedding, it probably doesn't make sense to have seating. I don't think most people realized that.

Vikki2pay

Assigned seating is the way to go.  You don't need to assign each and every seat but the tables are necessary, even if it's a small wedding.

I went to a wedding with 30 guests and the bride did assigned seating.

nyquinn134

I'm not a fan of open seating b/c I feel like I'm in the cafeteria on the first day of school and I don't know who to sit with haha At my FSIL's wedding she had open seating and my FI and I were a little late to claim our seats and we almost had to seat w/ a famiy we couldn't stand.  Last minute we stole a chair from the table to sit somewhere else but then we didn't have enough place settings etc. 

sar919

Definitely assign tables. I personally think that open seating would be a disaster (unless you have a very small amount of guests). People would probably be confused as to where to sit, and some tables my have a ton of people, while others do not. We were required to make a seating chart for our wedding, and I just wrote down peoples' names at the tables and didn't really pay attention to who I sat next to who. No matter where you sit people at the tables, they will probably move around to sit next to who they want to sit next to.