Did you have them at your wedding? How did they work out?
If you didn’t have one, do you wish you had?
Any tips/suggestions for organizing?
Any ideas for the placecard table?
Re: Seating charts
I had a seating chart at my wedding and loved it.
It's more organized when you do.
If you don't people don't fill up the tables or take chairs from other tables and sit with people they want to sit with and then you have half empty tables and over-crowded tables.
At my wedding, we did it by family so the familes were seated together.
At my sisters, we split the families up. So the parents were seated together with other parents, and the kids with other kids. I think this worked better because friends/cousins were able to sit together.
I would def. stick with your theme or colours for the place-card table so everything ties together.
G'luck!
Re: Seating charts
We're doing the seating chart for the baraat and also for the valima for my brother's wedding.
I was doing the baraat seating chart for our side of the family, and I put everyone by family. But then my parents said their siblings would want to sit with each other, not with their own kids, and they would all get up and move anyway, so might as well assign the tables like that. So I'm doing it more by age group and such.
The Valima will be similar, but with some different groupings.
Re: Seating charts
We doing some sitting charts.. like the tables near the stage will have reserved signs for the baraat and some close realatives.. i would have liked to do complete sitting charts but since the wedding is in pakistan i'm scared people might get offended!
Re: Seating charts
^It's also less of an issue in Pakistan because there arent' as many space issues, nor does one extra person add a lot to the cost of the event.
Re: Seating charts
we did it for our wedding. For the most part, I thought it worked out really well, except for a few glitches:
1) Because people in my family invited people and forgot to tell me until the day before the wedding (hate that!!!!), I had to call the hall and have them add extra tables (we ended up with 6 extra tables!). Because of that, the table setting changed, and the tables I had put my family on (parents and siblings) ended up in the wrong place, rather than right beside the stage where I wanted them. I was really upset about that, but couldnt change it.
2) There were people who told us they would not be coming and ended up coming!!! How can someone do that!! We had 2 full families that did this! Luckily, when I made the seating plan, I noted down which tables had extra seats at them, and made sure the people at the receiving table had 2 copies of that list. We were able to seat those people, but it made me so angry....cause it made me look unorganized, even though my mom called these people a week before the wedding to find out if they were coming or not.
3) People move around and change tables regardless of where you put them. As long as everyone has a seat though, I wasnt really worried about it.
Re: Seating charts
We did seating charts for one event a few years ago.
It was a complete and utter disaster.
Aunties just plucked up their cards and sat down wherever they wanted.
:(
Re: Seating charts
I don't expect people to stay in their seats the whole time! The key is that everyone has a comfortable and designated spot to have dinner AND has a place to sit when told to take their seats for presentations and such.
Re: Seating charts
We did seating charts for one event a few years ago.
It was a complete and utter disaster.
Aunties just plucked up their cards and sat down wherever they wanted.
:(
I think it's become more common here, so hopefully people know what's expected of them!
Re: Seating charts
At an engagement party I went to recently there weren't enough seats... I guess they didn't plan properly. A Lot of people were left standing.. basically when someone got up to get food someone else took their seat. I think its beneficial to have a seating plan just to get an idea of where people will go and so everyone does have a seat somewhere. Personally, I like organization so when I take the plunge my wedding will be a sit down dinner with a seating plan.
Re: Seating charts
seating charts are awesome! BUT they only work if you have RSVP's from all of your guests, and if you are thoughtful about placing your guests by age or interest or family etc. they're becoming more and more common nowadays and i think people respect them for the most part. they were a success at our wedding which was small, and at my brothers, which was average desi size, around 175 folks.
Re: Seating charts
I'm actually really enjoying doing them. It's like a giant game of Tetris!
Re: Seating charts
it doesnot work in most of the families in pakistan.
Re: Seating charts
It depends how many people you have, I went to a wedding a few years ago, around 600 guests and everyone ignored the seating plan, I think the physical board which had the plan on it ended up on the floor!
Re: Seating charts
^ See, for parties that large, you have to position several close friends or family members to direct guests to their seats and generally, I prefer place cards for bigger weddings. A seating chart, especially just one, will not cut it. I went to a 700 guest wedding this summer and they had place cards and a whole host of bridesmaids manning that table and helping guests to their seats. It went beautifully! Everyone found their seats easily and sat down where they were meant to- it was actually a great way to organise that many guests, although I don't know about the process of actually seating 700 as a bride! Talk about hard work!
Re: Seating charts
Yeah, these wedding events are almost 500 people. We're doing place cards and I've recruited some of my cousins to man the tables and get us if there are any questions.
Re: Seating charts
**I seriously doubt seating charts would be of help at any wedding in Pakistan. Guests just sit wherever they want to esp. close enough to the food tables so they can just load plates and sit down. Seating goes haphazard every single minute there. **
Re: Seating charts
^ But there also aren't usually the same limitations on seating as there are in the West.
Re: Seating charts
***^No there aren’t any limitations, I agree.
Are you using any program for the charting? Found something that helps in coming up with floor plans. Do you think a program like this would help?
http://www.weddingwire.com/wedding-planning/wedding-seating-tables.html***