Update: We have a Plan - A Seating Plan that is

We had our site walkthrough this past Thursday. It was great to see the space again and get opinions from our Onsite Coordinator - Kerry - and our Wedding Coordinator - Brittani. 

While not everyone will be on the same floor for dinner, we were able to successfully seat all of our guests in Freja. We walked through the balcony and double checked the view of the main floor. All of our guests will be able to see the wedding party as well as the toasts and the cake cutting. 

We were also successful in that no additional tables were required (so no new rental fees). The tables on hand at the venue work. That also means no additional table linens were required (so no last minute rushing around to match our ivory). And the best part? We actually need less table runners than originally planned. Less sewing for our friends!

Here's a rough layout of where our guests will be. 

We decided to forgo escort cards and use place cards (when we originally made the escort cards we left the table numbers off until we had a final RSVP count). This layout with table names will appear in our program along with a listing of seats per table. At each table guests will find their seat by looking for their place card.

I'm so relieved that we have successfully placed each guest at a table; thus ending the seemingly never-ending game of musical chairs.

The Fine Art of Table Arranging

When we first put together our guest list we did so with a 75% acceptance rate in mind. We were aiming for 100 guests. At our current count if we have a 75% acceptance rate, we'll have 110 guests (including us and the Rabbi).

We'd originally thought we'd have everyone seated on the main floor. Only to learn that we'd been mistaken - 10 60" rounds fit on the main floor and 10 8' banquets fit on the balcony. We'd envisioned a head table flanked by two long tables with six rounds at the back of the room. So that won't work. Back to the drawing board.

Next up was a head table in front of the stage, with 6 rounds - 3 rounds at the edges of the room with the middle of the room open for dancing. That means with buffet, we'd be seating 48 guests on the main floor. A head table (3 - 8' banquets in a row) for the wedding party and significant others and 6 - 60" round tables on the main floor. The remaining 7 - 8' banquets would be in the balcony. That accommodates another 42 guests. We're 10 seats shy of 100, 20 seats shy of 110. And... this plan isn't even accommodating high chairs (the venue doesn't have any so on the advice of a friend who's a parent, we're advising our guests with babies to bring their portable high chairs). Again back to the drawing board.

What we're looking at now are 8 rounds - 4 rounds at the edges of the room, with the wedding party split across two rounds (the rounds situated in front of the speakers so that we won't have to hear complaints from the guests). That means we're still seating 48 guests on the main floor. But we now have 10 - 8' banquets in the balcony which will accomodate 60 guests. Now we have seats for 108, which actually could work as cubes and I will be eating our dinner during Yichud and mingling so we don't need seats. The toasts won't occur until after dinner so that guests seated in the balcony will be able to come down to the main floor.

We can continue to blithely hope that the 8 rounds layout would work, but it won't. It doesn't accommodate high chairs and high chairs take up the same amount of space as a seat. So we're not really 2 seats shy of our estimated guest count, we're actually 6 seats shy - an entire table.

We're still good though - we can place the 9th round on the stage. With this layout we still have an open dance floor so we won't have to flip the room yet again (if you just started reading, we're having the ceremony in the same room as the reception). While not the original family, intimate seating that we'd imagined, we're still going to be surrounded by those we love and who love us.

Were you playing musical chairs trying to find seats for all of your guests? Were you worried that your guests' feelings would be hurt if they were seated in the balcony or in a side room?

Space and the lack there of

Celebrations have friends gathered around one table. Sometimes this table is one long rectangle. Sometimes this table is in the shape of an F. Other times in the shape of an L. But one thing is consistent. All of us are at 1 table.

So why on a beautiful Saturday am I once again talking about tables when it seemed like it was a done deal a few short weeks ago? Because somewhere I misunderstood how all our guests would fit in the hall for dinner. I'm still not sure how I missed this - I could have sworn I asked, especially as I wanted to avoid stairs and rope off the balcony. But nonetheless it turns out there's a reason our space has both round tables and banquet tables - 10 of each. All 20 of the tables fit inside the hall where we're having our reception. Not all the tables actually rest on the hall floor - some of the tables are set up on the third floor balcony.

Now I knew with our venue that we couldn't seat the total number of guests at 1 table. At 6 guests per banquet table when the tables are arranged end-to-end we'd only be able to seat 62 guests. I however had always thought all of our guests would be on the same floor. I always imagined looking out and seeing all of our friends and family members. With guests seated in the balcony, there will be some who I won't see.

It's stupid to be disappointed, after all it's just one meal. But we worked so hard to find a venue and set a budget so that we could invite as many of our friends and family as possible to both the ceremony and reception. All that effort and still some (more than some at least 12!) will miss seeing our faces during the toasts, our faces when we dance our first dance, etc.

I'd imagined after the ceremony and Yichud, that cubes and I would leisurely mingle with guests during the remaining 45 minutes of our cocktail hour. We'd skip the traditional reception line and go table-to-table to greet our guests and thank them for joining us. Unfortunately, there's not enough room on the balcony for us to greet the guests seated there.

(Source)

On the plus side... the tables on the balcony can be set up before the ceremony and the balcony roped off until the reception begins. On the downside... none of the round tables downstairs can be set up until after the ceremony is finished as the chairs take up the entire floor.

(Source)

Other than a couple of must haves/common courtesies to those who should be

seated on the main floor regardless of relationship

- friends or family with strollers, anyone with trouble navigating stairs, etc. - how do you determine who sits upstairs?

Did you have to change your seating plan last minute? Were any of your guests left without a view?