Who sits with who?

This is often one of the most stressful and most debated subjects!  Don’t even start thinking about arranging who is sitting where until you have received the majority of your replies from the invitations.  You may have very different views from your daughter on this subject, whilst she wants her friends next to her; you think it should be family.  One-way round this is to compromise and have one table of each.  Firstly ask yourself some of the questions below before you start writing the plan.

Are the families and friends balanced? 

If you have more family on one side than the other it may be worth mixing the two families up to not make it too obvious.  If they are fairly balanced then it’s best to keep them together.

Are there any people who definitely can’t be on the same table? 

Identify these people first, brothers that aren’t speaking, friends that don’t like each other at least that way you can avoid any conflicts as much as possible from the offset.

What shapes do you want people to be sat in? 

Although it’s most common to have round tables, there are several other table layouts you can look at to keep it less formal and less obvious who is most important to you.


How late can you leave it to complete the table plan? 

This is a job that really needs to be done as late as possible so if you’re getting someone else to do it see when their very last date for changes are.