Wedding Ceremony Seating Plan
Your big day is drawing near and wedding preparations are on the way! You have worked out a check-list and have probably made all the major planning and necessary reservations in order to make your wedding a great and memorable event. At this point, your greatest fears would probably be some minute detail that you left out, only to be discovered at the very last minute.
The wedding ceremony seating plan is probably one of the less important areas which usually requires less focus until the final month or two before the wedding. Of course, your RSVP list would need to be confirmed before you can decide on the placement of your guests. Once you have that in hand, you can then start getting a layout map of your chapel or location of your ceremony so that you can match your guests to their seats. Always ensure that there are enough seats for everyone by doing a count of your seating plan. In the event that there are more guests than seats, work with the chapel or building management to lay out more chairs. It may be a good idea to have an extra 10 to 20 chairs around in the event of last minute turn ups.
Parents and Wedding Party
During a wedding ceremony, it is a custom to have the brides parents sit at the left side of the chapel, and the grooms parents on the right side. Your siblings or immediate family can then take the second row behind your parents, and the same goes for your grooms family as well. Apart from that, you should allocate a section of the chapel as a reserved section for bridesmaids and the groomsmen. Work out an identification tag for them which they can show to the ushers so that they will be ushered directly to the reserved area on your big day.
Divorced Parents
One of the trickiest challenges with seating arrangements is when your or the grooms parents are divorced. If they are still on talking terms, you can still seat them at the front row with their new spouses on the row directly behind them. On the other hand, if you think there would be cold stares and potential animosity with this arrangement, you should then place the mother and her new family at the front row, with your dad and his new family at the row behind them. If this is still not far enough, you should then move your dad and his family to another row behind in order to separate the two of them further. At times, you may even want to consider moving one of your parents to your spouses side of the chapel for the distance, but still remain at a front row.
Extended Families
Next in line for consideration would be the extended families, such as grandparents, aunts and uncles as well as cousins, nieces and nephews. They should be seated behind your immediate family members, with grandparents directly behind your siblings. Also, if you have step-relatives they should be escorted to their seats first before your birth relatives, even though they may be sitting at a row further away towards the back.
Ushering In
When ushered to their seats, its is customary to follow the following sequence other special guests will be ushered first, followed by grandmothers of the bride and groom, the grooms mother and finally the brides mother. If you are having a Christian church wedding, it is also expected that the brides mother will ALWAYS be the last to be seated.
Guests with Special Needs
Other considerations would be special guests in wheelchairs or crutches, which should be seated at the end of a row. Apart from that, due consideration should be given to elderly guests, which is why they should be seated as close to the front as possible.
Make a Plan
Finally, always remember to draw out a plan with a list of names and numbers on your seating arrangement. Make several copies and be sure to pass them to your ushers for reference. Brief your ushers well before the wedding if there should be any special cases they should be reminded to watch out for. Once they know what they are supposed to do, you will minimize on the possibility of surprises and go on to have that perfectly planned wedding that you have always dreamed of!