Assigned Seating

You aren't required to have place cards for your guests. Photo by hannahelaine photography (hannahelaine.com).

A question I am sometimes called upon to answer is, “Do we have to have assigned seating?”  The answer is, “No.”  But there are some things to think about if you don’t tell your guests which table to sit at.

One of the advantages of assigned seats at a large event is that everyone will be sitting with the people they arrived with.  If seats are not assigned, there is a chance that a group finding seats after most of the guests have sat down will not all be able to sit at one table.  If you don’t plan to assign seats, do plan to have an extra table (or two, at a larger event) so everyone can find seats together.

And, of course, there is the old Cousin-Mary-can’t-stand-Uncle-Bob problem.  If you feel you need to manage family relationships, assigned seating gives you, as the host or hostess, a certain amount of control over the placement of volatile family members.  But if you prefer to allow adults manage their own preferences and antipathies, you can let them find their own seats.  Chances are, Cousin Mary will find a table where Uncle Bob won’t be sitting on her own.

Another thing to consider is the catering service.  If you are having a formal, sit-down, plated dinner and if you have asked your guests for their meal preferences in advance, it will be much easier on the serving staff if you have assigned seats and can tell the caterers in advance where all the guests eating salmon will be sitting.  Open seating works much better when your meal is a buffet.

There’s no single answer to the question of how to manage seating assignments, but there are a few things to think about to make sure that if you don’t assign them that things still go smoothly.