Now that we have our RSVPs in, it's time to figure out the final lay-out for tables and submit our final get count and rental requests. This is undeniably the most daunting wedding task. I am using a combination of long and square tables to give a modern, clean-line balance to our mixed china look which has it's benefits and it's drawbacks. Behold, my high-tech design tools to figure out the best layout:
Good ole' Post-It notes! (Please excuse the dirty coffee table). The table in the top right corner (aka the back corner near the speakers) is a little short and stumpy so I wanted to make sure it would look okay "in person" versus on a computer screen.
Square tables can be difficult to seat, because if you only have seven guests at one table, there is an obvious single person. And if you have a crew with 9 people who should Ideally sit together, you can't just squeeze one more in like you can at a round table. Fortunately, we only had one situation with a straggler, and I worked it out by breaking up back stumpy table (my sister and her bests. They'll be okay).
Now behold my Powerpoint pic of awesome that I emailed to the caterer and rental folks!
The green rectangles are shorter, 6' tables that I needed to tack on for very large groups, which brings me to the delightful part of using various sized tables. I don't have to split up big groups! Small groups fit together snuggly at a square while my cousins (22 people, and that's only who's coming) on my mom's side have an extra long party bus table. My high school crew is taking one for the team and splitting up at tables 16 and 17 because I was losing all my squares to large groups. I love that the big tables feel like Thanksgiving with big groups of friends and family. I hope our guests feel the same way.
My best advice for this project is to group people into potential tables before your RSVPs are in, while you still have some free time. This saved my sanity a little- we added a column in our excel spreadsheet called "groups" with names like "grandmomfriends," "PSU," etc. Then you can sort by group, make adjustments for the people not attending/bringing guests etc. Like I said, luckily we only had one straggler, and after consulting my mom, we had a good solution.
Was the table layout a complete headache for you, or a fun puzzle? Are you mixing up your table sizes and shapes to accommodate for groups?
