Royal Dias or Grand Feasting Table?
Choosing whether you want to sit close to your bridal party and family or on your own throne as wedding royalty can be a tough choice. Wedding planning can be exhausting and one of the hardest parts is the seating chart. After worrying about where and how your guests will be sitting, some couples forget to seat themselves!
The decision between a Head Table and a Sweethearts Table comes down to pure preference, but if you and your honey aren’t particularly swayed in one direction over another, here’s some detailed information about both options to help you decide.
Florist: Native Poppy
Sweethearts Tables:
A Sweethearts Table is exactly what it sounds like: a table meant for only the Bride and Groom. It will be one of the few designated places you and your significant other will be able to–frankly–escape the hordes of your adoring fans, aka your enthusiastic family members. There won’t be many moments over the course of the night where the two of you will be able to have private moments to yourselves and having a designated seat away from the crowd might be exactly what you need.
Florals by a family member of the Bride
A Remote Island Getaway
This table acts as a liferaft and will become your perching place for those few precious moments that nobody needs you for anything. Plus, everything on the table only comes in two’s, so you can afford to decorate! Without worrying about making 100+ copies of everything and buying in bulk, you can customize your special space all you want. Make it look like the table of your wildest dreams! (Or your wildest Pinterest boards…)
Florist: KO Floral Designs
No Need to Have your Freinds on a Leash
Having your own table also grants your Bridal Party the freedom to mingle and pursue their own agendas throughout the night, without feeling like they have to ask permission to leave the table. Most Bridal Party members will also be bringing dates who they will want to check in with periodically. The Sweetheart Table keeps your honored friends out from under the spotlight and able to entertain your other guests.
Florist: Layered Vintage
Speaking of Bridal Parties, have you considered how many there are of you in total?
Plus their dates? If you plan on seating only the designated Bridal party with you, hopefully their “Plus Ones” know somebody else to sit and talk with at their tables…
In general, bigger Bridal Parties tend to look a bit excessive all seated away from the rest of your guests. A group of people over twelve can also be hard to seat properly all looking out in the same direction since you wouldn’t want anybody’s back to the rest of your guests. That can mean your head table is now around eighteen feet long and if you want to talk to the ones at the very ends, start practicing your smoke signals now. Unfortunately, those whom you wanted close to you can end up not being close at all.
Florals by the Bride and Groom
Musical Chairs
Think back to other occasions where a large group of friends and family got together at a restaurant. One of the biggest seating issues is making others have to get up or scoot their seats in every time you need to get up. Honestly, at your wedding, you only get to sit and relax for a total of about 45 minutes, if you’re lucky and the toasts are long.
This seat-shuffling issue is removed by having a Sweetheart Table and it also allows for your guests to feel more comfortable approaching you. Nobody wants to cause an inconvenience by imposing themselves on someone else’s space and by removing additional bodies, a direct line of traffic can be made from your guests to you. Thus, creating a quicker flow of interactions and a more time efficient process for the event overall.
Florist: I Do Flowers For You
Symbolically…
…sitting at a Sweethearts Table can also be the first gesture a couple can make together in their married lives. It can show that they are a single united entity forging a future path of their own. Many couples choose this option simply for this significance.
Florist: Siren Floral Co.
Head Tables: For your Knights and Ladies in Waiting
As mentioned before, head tables can come with their own difficulties, but with the right size of Bridal Party, they can be a perfect fit! Medium to small sized Bridal Parties, (4-10 people including the Bride and Groom) are what Head Tables are literally built for.
Florist: Splendid Sentiments
Modeled after the “High Tables” from Medieval feasts…
…royalty kept only the most trusted people close to them at meals. Without getting too into the history, it was a matter of safety as well as propriety where guests were seated away from the hosts in order of rank. So today, we seat those that the Bride and Groom want to honor closest to them for their friendship and loyalty in their lives. These people have helped carry you throughout your lives and to give them the thanks they deserve seems only natural.
Florist: Tiny Victories
Family is an enormous part of weddings and we wouldn’t want anybody to feel left out.
Some couples sit at a designated Family Table, (which is basically an XXL Head Table), where they can be in the thick of all the fun and it works out fantastically. Their Bridal Parties, full of people practically family to them already, are sometimes too big and it makes sense to just be part of the party! They’re all going to want to talk to you anyway, might as well go join them so everyone can be able to sit and chat!
Florist: Haystack Floral
Let’s say you don’t particularly care for the spotlight and you just want to be seated with your family: we say go for a Family Table!
Introverted and family-focused couples love this option, especially when so much stimulation and people wanting your attention over the day gets to be too much. The extra support you’ll receive surrounded by those already begging at the chance to help will be a relief. This option is also a smart way to pinch a few pennies since you won’t need to order extra tables and decorations!
Florist: Huntress Florals
Now that you have all the information, good and bad points depending on your views, make a choice!
Just remember to be true to what you and your significant other want.
Thanks to all of the amazing Photographers mentioned above whose pictures we used to make this collaboration, and to all the Florists who help inspire us with these beautiful setups!!