We are getting married in an old house, that is now a wedding venue. The ceremony takes place downstairs, below a semi-circle balcony. There will only be 32 seats for immediate family (16 on each side), while the rest of the family members and friends will stand/sit on the balcony looking over. There's plenty of room for everyone upstairs and it's very easy to see. I'm having trouble picking who sits downstairs. I wanted to assign seats, in order to prevent families from skipping seats in order to sit together, possibly leaving empty seats during the ceremony that could be occupied.
If I do assign seats, I need advice on if I go through my mom's family first, then my dad's, until I get to 16?
Or should I not assign, and leave it up to the family to decide? I'm sure I can have our wedding planner keep an eye out so that if she does see empty seats before the ceremony starts, she can find family that would want to sit. The only issue I see here is if there's 1 random seat, because most people will be there with someone, so I don't want to separate anyone.
Re: Limited Seating for Family; Who gets Priority?
I don't have a problem with people standing. I've been to a wedding at this venue before and it was not an issue. There will be chairs upstairs that people can sit it and still see over the balcony, but there will not be seats specifically set up for this reason upstairs. The ceremony will not be long, so as it may not be ideal, it is not something on my list of worries.
Also, I went to a wedding that had a seat for everyone and the officiant never said to sit down, so we stood the entire time, with a seat behind us. This, in my opinion was much worse than having seats for family only.
I would love to have the ceremony outside, except that it's in August in South Louisiana, if the heat doesn't get everyone, the humidity will.
I'll figure it out...getting advice that isn't surrounded by criticism on here is like trying to knock a tree down with a sneeze.
Cannot be moved outside, 90+ degree heat in almost 100% humidity.
You need to make sure that every butt has a seat. Not just 16 guests who are more valuable than the other get a seat and get to comfortably watch the ceremony, while the rest of the group get to either stand if they want to see you say I do.
If I knew in advance that I wouldn't be able to sit down at the ceremony, I wouldn't accept the invitation.
Sorry, but if you're not going to change the venue to allow all your guests to be seated, I have no advice for you that you'll be willing to listen to. I don't think any of the rest of us here do either.
ETA....oops. @zitiqueen, I did not see you had already suggested an auctioneer. Good thing they are used to standing during their gig!
For the sake of this discussion I'm going to assume you and your FI are paying bc delving in to wedding planning money politics is too much and the below advice may fall short.
I would start with immediate family. They're going to be front row regardless of age, etc.
Then the elderly. Anyone with known handicaps, injuries or physical limitations, etc. Preggos next.
After that I'd consider leaving things open seating - first come, first seated.
Regardless of whether some people find the lack of seating for all rude or not is irrelevant at this point - you're three weeks out and you made your choice and the venue won. And trust me, most able bodied people can stand for 15-20 minutes, it won't kill them. I've stood through several weddings, all outdoors, all with limited seating for the groups listed above and didn't give it much of a thought. Just make sure all of your guests can hear you.