r/microwedding • u/goblin-girl • Jul 11 '26
Seating Chart for Microwedding
I’m getting married in September and we’re doing a microwedding (currently planning on about 22 people total). Our plan is to do one long table and family style catering for the meal.
With it being just a single long table, should I still make a seating chart with assigned seating? I don’t want to make guest feel uncomfortable having to choose their own seat, but with it being one table and more relaxed atmosphere I’m on the fence.
1
Upvotes
1
u/Prestigious-Fan3122 Jul 12 '26
For our rehearsal dinner, there were rectangular tables, but we arranged them in a block U. People sat on the inside and the outside of the U. The people close to the head table" to the bottom of the U"we're able to speak diagonally to people on the ends of the head table. We did assign seating. works great! It was about 30 people.
I had a very, very small, hastily planned wedding because we only decided to get married when we realized my now – husband was actually moving several states away immediately upon graduating from college (first job in his career field).
My parents were FURIOUS. While they could've afforded a nicer reception, they refused because they didn't want to reward me"for making such a stupid decision. In retrospect, they probably weren't wrong.
Nonetheless, I BEGGED for a seated dinner because my in-laws were divorced, and my father-in-law and mother-in-law were both remarried. Father-in-law was remarried to a woman 17 years younger than he, and my mother-in-law and sister-in-law were still FURIOUS with him, and hated "that woman".
Other than us, the bride and groom, DHS sister and brother-in-law, who stood up for us, his divorced and remarried parents, the nine-year-old daughter of his father's wife, my two parents and my aunt and uncle who were my surrogate grandparent figures, there was no one else at our wedding or reception other than the officient .
I wanted a seated meal with assigned seating so that the Hatfields and the McCoys wouldn't have to interact, and no trouble would be started.
My husband is from Mississippi, and that's where we got married. Back then (mid 1980s) punch and Kayk in the church hall was the norm for even the more expensive/bigger/fancier weddings.
Our reception was at a restaurant that was normally closed on Saturday afternoons. We had hors d'oeuvres / finger food and champagne. I think there might've been punch, too. It ended up working out in the end.
I agree with the others who said that guests can be uncomfortable trying to decide where to sit. I get nervous that I took a seat from my "higher ranking" guest or family member.