This was an exceptionally nice vendors' table.
If you’re throwing a big party, chances are that some of your vendors will have meal requirements in their contracts. Generally, photographers, DJs, and planners are all going to need a meal. That means, of course, that you’ll have to add the number of vendors to your guest count for catering purposes. But where will they eat? That’s a question to ask yourself early in the planning process.
Sometimes when I’m coordinating a wedding, the bride will arrange a place for me at one of the guest tables. Sometimes, there will be no arrangement at all. On rare occasions, there will be a vendor table.
Sitting with the guests is definitely an option. I always find, though, that I jump up so many times during the meal to take care of something that it is disruptive to my table mates. Depending on the timing of events, I might not even be able to sit down to eat when the guests do. For those reasons, I always advise my clients not to put me at a table with guests. Or, if that is the only choice, it might make sense to put me (and other vendors, who have the same issues) at the end of a long table, a little isolated from the guests.
If I have no assigned seat, I can always find a place to eat, so that is a viable option. As long as you have ordered enough forks and napkins, I can find a chair somewhere out of the way to eat.
But if you have the space and if it’s not expensive to do, the nicest thing to do is to set aside a vendors’ table. It can be in the least attractive corner of the room, near the kitchen, where you would not want to put guests. It will probably need linens, unless it is not in the reception hall. But it doesn’t need anything fancy. Your vendors just need a place to sit for 20 minutes and eat quickly before getting back to work for you.
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