While some weddings (mainly the small, boutique ones) allow for open seating (i.e. guests sit wherever they want, with whomever they want), most usually allocate particular people at certain tables throughout the event space. There are a number of ways to inform guests of where they will be sitting at your wedding. This process begins by establishing a seating plan; knowing your total number of attending guests, how many guests will sit per table, how the tables will be set up in the venue, and deciding who will sit with whom. You can then convey this information to your guests in the following ways:

Wedding Seating Charts

- Seating charts are a large-scale depiction of your seating plan. They can be as simple or elaborate as you choose, as generic or as personalized as you prefer. A single seating chart is typically most effective for smaller-scale weddings, with additional seating charts (arranged alphabetically) used for larger guest counts.

One bride of mine decided to create a photo collage from her seating chart:

While other brides prefer a more simple, text-only variation:

Sometimes, the seating chart is designed to resemble the layout of the hall to help guests find their table:

… and can be as fancy or simple as you prefer:

If you’re concerned that too many people will be clustered around your seating chart at once, escort cards are a good alternative.

Wedding Escort Cards

Escort cards are created for each guest, listing the guest’s name and table number. They can be plain and simple:

Or creative and unique (sometimes even doubling as the wedding favour!):

For my own at-home reception, I opted to use both escort cards and a seating chart (of sorts). I created my own DIY escort cards:

… initially inspired by this photo:

Due to my large guest count, I opted to have my three trays of sand and cards alphabetized. I’ve seen weddings where escort cards are arranged by groups… “His Family”, “Her Family”, and “Like Family”.

Once guests had their escort cards, they saw an easel with a re-created the layout of the hall so that they didn’t have to spend any time wandering through the tables to find their table number.

For more inspiration on wedding seating charts, creative escort cards and how to decorate your escort card table, add WeddingGirl Dot Ca as a friend on Facebook and browse through the photo albums!