One crucial element of a wedding is the seating arrangement. Get it wrong and your guests will spend the whole day wishing they were somewhere else. Get it right and your guests will never want to leave. The key is balancing cliques, personalities, and statuses. Read on to find out more:
Cliques are easy
Sit family with family and friends with friends. It goes without saying. However, it never works out so easy. You know you have a bunch of cousins and some are the fun one and some are, well, the not so fun ones. While it is tempting to have a fun table and put all the lively personalities there (because you know they will have an epic night), you should avoid this. The reason is simple, that other table is dying. You need to have a table of half fun cousins and half boring cousins so that both tables can be a success. Divide and conquer.
Personalities are tough
It is tricky to balance personalities. You don´t want that one friend who talks so much to dominate a table of introverts. Try to have a couple of each personality at a table so the conversation is balanced and not weighing on a few people’s shoulders.
The individual
You have friends from many walks of life so it is only natural that you will invite a number of people who know nobody. It is tricky to know where to put them. Do you put a work colleague with all of your college friends? Do you put your squash buddy with your football team? The real question is do you keep all the individuals (those who know no one) together or do you dilute them among other tables? There is no right answer here but the singles table can be a lot of fun. The answer to this question comes back to personalities. If your individuals can carry their own weight and have strong personalities put them all on a table of individuals. They will have a great time. If they are slightly more introverted, put them on a table with a group. After the initial introductions, they will be able to slip into the background of conversations and participate as much as they want.
The key
The key is to talk to your guests, see how they feel about it and seat accordingly. Of course, you can’t please everyone. Prepare for a few draft iterations of the seating plan before you settle on the final one.
