Seating at a ceremony?

Cortney1982

I thought brides side always sit on the left and the grooms side on the right?

I went to a wedding this weekend and their was a lot of confusion amongst people as to where to sit.  The ceremony was outside at the grooms family home.  There was 250 guests and only 200 chairs.  No tent and it was blazing hot and sunny, except on the left side of the seating there was shade from a tree.  Apparently word got around that the grooms family requested their side get the shaded left side.  I have photosensitivity, no way am I sitting in the sun so my husband and I sat on the shady side away from our family.

monkeysip

Yeah, "sides" don't really matter anymore.  I think that tradition is slowly becoming less common.  I think it's kind of rude for the groom's family to "claim" a side in the shade.

But it was also incredibly rude to not have enough seats for all the guests. 

Kate61487

ditto PP.

The 'traditional' sides come from the traditional placement of the bride standing on the left and the groom standing on the right as you look up on the alter/stage.  THAT tradition stems from the olden days when the groom need to have his sword hand free to fend off anyone who may be trying to steal his bride.

edit - typo

Summer2011Bride

I would be more upset that they didn't have enough chairs for everybody.

I agree that the tradition of sides is not very common anymore. We usually sit wherever we want when we go to a wedding, and we purposely did not have sides at ours. I think I went to one wedding in the past couple years where the usher who escorted me in asked, 'Bride or groom side?" and I told him I was there supporting the couple, so he could sit me wherever he wanted.

blgrout

Ditto PP on everything. 

Fun fact:  we didn't actually plan to have sides at our wedding, and people still chose their seats according to bride's side/groom's side, even though we put up a sign saying that people could sit wherever. 

kaos16

Every wedding I have been to in the past few years hasn't had assigned sides.  For some reason I always sit on the right. . . . I do the same thing in court. . . . no clue why

Carrie81677

We only followed the "sides" as far as the seating of the family VIPs...parents, grandparents, etc.  The groom's family sat primarily on the right; mine sat on both sides, due to the disproportionate sizes of our families.

Really, though, it's just lame that there weren't enough seats for everyone.

banana468

We followed sides at our wedding but at BIL and SiL's wedding there were so few people from the groom's side attending that they just asked people to siit wherever.

BUT, what the couple opted to do was really rude.   That kind of behavior was just not acceptable.