Assigned seats for ceremony?

We’re trying to do the same thing at the ceremony, expecting around 40 guests. I was initially thinking that people could figure out if they had five in their group to sit in a row with five chairs. I also thought the family who is at the ceremony site early to help set up chairs (and FH) could help direct people using the layout I give them, but I’m thinking I should probably make a sign/map or something. I like the idea of names on the chairs, but I may just go with something on the aisle chair with the last name.

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Glad someone else is in the same boat!

How funny, I actually had a similar thought about the aisle chair/last name - but then I got hung up in my head on etiquette rules since we have some couples with children that aren't necessarily married or don't share a last name. I guess I could just do something with the two last names and a slash between. Hmm!

View Quoted Comment I know what you mean! The last name plan works for most everyone, but then I keep thinking about FH’s friends who will be grouped together.


FH and I have been together 7.5 years and have a 5 & 6 year old, so I’m used to everything being in his last name and it doesn’t bother me. It may bother others, but last name/last name would work too.
My mom told me I’m crazy for trying to have a seating chart at the ceremony, glad I’m not alone!

I've never actually heard of assigning seats for the ceremony. I'm not sure why you would need to.

My future sister in law made name tags and tied them to the chairs. Most family units will sit together any ways.

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It sounds like the OP wants assign seats according to family household in order to help minimize the Covid risk. I've also never heard of assigning ceremony seating before, but it doesn't seem like a bad idea right now if it will help keep people in proximity to their family households

I am doing this to group households together! I have two ushers who will follow my seating chart that I have typed up and they will know exactly where everyone goes. My day of coordinator will also have a copy of the seating chart. We have an older guest list attending, and we are being as cautious as possible.

Ok, I'm trying to understand this, because assigned seating for the ceremony is something I've never seen nor heard of in all of my 52 years. The idea is blowing my mind right now!

I can see why this might be considered because of the pandemic, keeping everyone safe, as well as helping them feel comfortable attending. My question is, don't you think people will do this automatically because of the current circumstances? If I'm thinking like a guest in this situation, I'm going to sit with my household members, and try to keep gaps of seats between us and other similar groups, to maximize everyone's safety.

It just sounds so hard to do!! I think Leanne's suggestion above would work the best. Having ushers to assist guests to the seats you've worked out will minimize confusion, and get everyone where they need to be. Good luck!

We are putting name cards on everyone’s seat and seating by household. We will only have about 20 guests so we figure they can easily find the seat with their name. To PP - yes, hopefully people are doing this anyway but this also allows for each household to be seated 6 ft apart from one another.

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I never have either, hence feeling like I'm lost in uncharted territory here. As another poster mentioned, this is a completely COVID-driven precaution.

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That's a cute idea!

I expect most family groups to sit together of course, but with limited seating and the spacing requirements, the rows will not all be even; depending on how people fill in, there could be some confusion with where to sit.

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This is exactly correct!

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Glad to hear someone else has a plan to do this! Unfortunately, we don't have ushers, but this is a great idea.

I do have a wedding coordinator, so I might run something like this by her!

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Thank you! It might help if I explain my seating vision a little more.

Our seating will be individual chairs that can be moved around. For set up, I was imagining doing like a row of 3 on one side, a row of two on the other; a row of 5 on one side, 3 on the other, etc. -- based on family/household groups.

We have guests of varying opinions on the pandemic and while some might be comfortable sitting next to family/friends they haven't seen recently or strangers, others are not. I feel like it's better if I take that guest anxiety out of the equation.

If I do the setup above without assignments, people could sit in the "wrong" spot and then we'll need to move around the chairs to adjust.

If we do regular seating with some extra chairs and full, even rows, I'm not sure if everyone will take it upon themselves to space each other out within an individual row. The rows themselves will be 6 feet apart, but I don't want a family friend who is not taking any precautions to sit next to my grandma.

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That's true! Our RSVP deadline isn't for another few weeks, so if we have an even smaller number, I might not need to bother with a sign or anything.

I had planned on having one of those 'pick a seat, not a side' signs, but, well. Here we are lol.

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I'm not sure if this helps, but this is what the seating will look like for our ceremony!

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Ah, it does! That's pretty much exactly what I have in my head but I hadn't visually planned it out yet. Thank you!

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No problem, good luck!!