Seating Chart

You don’t need to do a seating chart for display, but it’s always helpful to assign guests to tables. You can have escort cards that just have their names and table number displayed on a table in alphabetical order for them to grab and go.

Why does he not want a seating chart?


There should be some type of seating assignments if you are having more than 20 people or so. Seating assignments although painstaking and more annoying than it has to be, I'd very nice to ensure every person has a spot at a table. It also allows you to dictate who gets to sit closer to the couple. Without that seating chart people will be moving chairs around to squeeze into tables and leave others empty.

I would have assigned seating. You could do escort cards instead of a seating chart. I've hated going to weddings with no assigned seating. You end up with other guests reserving seats for others or end up sitting with somewhere strange. It also requires extra seating and tables because guests aren't good at seating themselves. Also some venues might require it. I know our venue did.

It is very much necessary because if you are having a large number of guests then its definitely because you want to make sure that everyone of your guest is counted and have a seat at your reception. It can get chaotic and if there are any guest that didn't RSVP you in time that those names will have a seat in case that you decide to let them attend.

As others before have said, no assigned seating would result in chaos - guests pulling chairs from tables to sit next to someone they want, someone taking a table close to you when it really should be for your own parents/immediate family to sit at, etc etc. It might be a bit of a hassle, but there really should be some kind of assigned seating, whether it’s a chart or the escort cards. You could just group people into tables and print off something at FedEx, Staples, Office Depot, etc with the list of people under each table number/name.

You should assign tables for sure. Otherwise you'll have a "school cafeteria" sort of situation with groups pulling chairs over to sit together etc.

Assign tables at minimum using individual escort cards which are easier on everyone instead of a difficult to read poster/mirror.


If you don’t, adults do not seat themselves efficiently and couples and families get separated. Grandma saves an entire table that no one sits at and others are split up. Some guests will leave but all have ptsd from the high school cafeteria.