Couples often spend many agonising hours painstakingly working out a seating plan for their evening meal but when it comes to the wedding ceremony itself they barely give it a second thought. I can’t however stress enough how important a seating plan is for the wedding – at least for the main bridal party and close family members. I have been at a few weddings when the couple have decided to keep the event ‘informal’ and not reserve seats for their nearest and dearest only to find that great auntie Mabel has put herself in the front row ‘for a good view’ and the bridesmaids have either had to stand up for the entire ceremony or sit halfway down the back of the room. A ceremony can still be relaxed with a seating plan and will run far more smoothly when the bridal party enters the room. How you ultimately decide to seat your guests is obviously your decision but I have listed below a few tips to think about if you like the idea of a seating plan:
- Putting actual names on the seats rather than a reserved sign tends to work best and avoids any confusion.
- Whoever walks the bride down the aisle should ideally be on the first row on the end seat – nearest the aisle.
- Bridesmaids should ideally have seats reserved in either the first or second rows. If you have a large number of bridesmaids then they can just be split between a couple of rows. If the bridesmaids walk down the aisle in the order they are sitting it makes the whole process of them finding their seats a much smoother process.
- The best man needs to be close to the groom and whenever possible should be seated in the first row.
- Anyone doing a reading should whenever possible have a seat reserved for them (don’t forget to reserve seats for whoever might be with them ie their partner or children). The reader should ideally be on the end of the row nearest the aisle to avoid clambering over other guests when they come up to read.
- Most couples tend to stand during their wedding ceremony but it is always handy to have a couple of chairs tucked to one side in case you decide to sit down during the readings. Once again names on these seats avoids any confusion as to who they are for.
Finally, traditionally weddings always tended to have the groom’s family on one side and the bride’s on the other. If you want a more traditional ceremony and have a roughly equal number of guests on both sides then this works well. If however, you are looking for a more modern approach and possibly one of you has a large number of guests, then it’s quite nice to put up a sign just outside the ceremony room like the one above (image credit).