Tips on Wedding Reception Table Planning

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You have spent countless hours designing the table settings, arranging the entertainment and catering for your once-an-a-lifetime wedding day! There is one last detail to check off your wedding planning to-do list: designing the seating arrangements for your reception. Some top table combinations, seating etiquette, reasons why to create a table plan and practical tips are discussed by Martin Commins, the owner of Bespoke Diamonds. Keep reading to learn more Tips on Wedding Reception Table Planning.

The date of your wedding looms large and you’ve taken care of all the major tasks ahead of the big day, so now it’s down to the plethora of smaller, yet still significant jobs – such as making a table plan for the reception. You’ll know exactly who’s attending by now, so it’s a matter of distributing guests between tables in such a way that the arrangements are as ideal as can be.

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Top Table:

Tradition dictates that a wedding reception’s top table contains the newlyweds, their parents, the best man and the chief bridesmaid, alternating between genders viewing from end to end. With many contemporary weddings, the composition of the top table can be rather different, particularly if one of the newlyweds’ parents are no longer together. Couples may choose to just have a sweethearts’ table for themselves, a top table with their children or, in some cases, no top table at all. Ultimately, whatever they think is best is the ideal choice.
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Always Make a Plan:

On occasion, couples may decide to forego making a table plan, but is not recommended at all. Declaring open season for your wedding reception will lead to chaos, while the last guests to be seated could feel embarrassed. Indeed, it could even happen that invited guests miss out on seats which are instead occupied by opportunistic wedding crashers.

Photographed with I DO PHOTOGRAPHY

Consider the Practicalities:

Making a table plan isn’t just about putting groups of people at tables. You’ll need to decide on an ideal number of guests per table (8 is usually best), how many tables can fit in the reception hall and how you’re going to ensure that there is room to manoeuvre between tables.

Photographed with RACHEL SOLOMON PHOTOGRAPHY

For more essential tips on wedding reception table planning, check out this infographic from Martin in Bespoke Diamonds.

About the author

Martin Commins is the owner of Bespoke Diamonds, a wedding ring search website based in Dublin, Ireland. He is regularly in contact with several of the world’s leading diamond dealers in order to have access to the highest quality diamonds to correspond with the highly renowned wedding bands that he manufactures. [Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Pinterest | Google+]