How to make your wedding seating plan

A seating plan is prepared once the replies are in, about three weeks before the wedding. Place the top table and close families first, then the groups of friends, and finish with the guests who know no one.

When to start

There's no point seating anyone before you have the replies: every cancellation undoes a table. Start when only a few latecomers are missing, generally three weeks before the big day, and keep the final version for the week before.

Your caterer and your reception venue need the number of tables and their size before the detail of the names: give them this figure as soon as it is stable.

In what order to seat the guests

• The top table: the two of you, then depending on your families, parents, witnesses or siblings.
• Close families, as near to you as possible.
• Established groups: friends from university, colleagues, cousins. They almost seat themselves.
• Guests who are on their own: put them with at least one person they know, or with guests of the same age and similar interests.
• Children: with their parents before the age of six, then at a table of their own if someone supervises them.

Round or rectangular tables

A round table of 150 cm comfortably seats eight people, one of 180 cm ten to twelve. It encourages conversation across the whole table. Rectangular banquet tables seat more people in the same room and suit large families, but everyone only talks to their neighbours.

Always leave a good metre between two set tables: it's the room the service needs to move around with plates.

The mistakes that keep coming up

• Filling every table to the maximum: keep one or two spare seats for a last-minute guest.
• Forgetting suppliers who dine on site: photographer, DJ, host. They count in the covers and in the plan.
• Keep older guests away from the exit and the toilets, or seat them near the speakers.
• Not telling the caterer where each special diet is seated.