For those who are married, who did you sit with at your wedding reception?

Question

We're both against that whole "sweeheart" table thing and would rather sit among our wedding party and parents at our reception. The problem is, the round tables at our venue only have room for 10 people, and including our wedding party, ourselves and our parents, it's 14 people total. Who should we choose to sit at our table with us? Just the wedding party, and have the parents sit elsewhere with other family members? Just wondering how others have done this in the past. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Have a long table set up in the front for both the bridal party and your parents.

Do a table with you and your parents and the bridal party next to that

or you and your party and parents next to you with other family

its whatever you are more comfortable with

Answer 2

To be honest I only sat maybe 5 minutes at my reception. We had a "sweetheart" table, but we took a few bites of food really quickly and that was it.  We mingled, danced, talked the night away with our guests.

In your situation I would have just the wedding party at the table, and parents at a different table.

The sweetheart table is nice because it looks romantic and the couple stands out as the reason everyone is there. It isn't really as "anti-social" as one would think, unless you spend the whole night sitting there...but I'm sure you won't. Everyone will want to dance/chat/give your congrats/ take pictures with you.

Good luck and congrats!

Answer 3

We had our wedding party, which was 10 people including us. Our parents and grandparents sat at another table.  

Answer 4

We had a head table, and it was great to be all together. Most venues will accommodate you with this.

Answer 5

I saw an idea on a website about leaving two seats open at every table that way you and your husband can go around and visit at each table. I liked that idea but if we don't do that we'll probably have our parents sitting with us.  

Answer 6

Sit?

We had a head table (round) but I don't think we actually got to sit during the reception. I know we didn't get to eat. Fortunately, our caterer took care of us and left food with our limo driver.

Answer 7

We just had the wedding party at our table.

Answer 8

We had the bridal party at the head table.. and then parents and grandparents on either side.

Answer 9

Typically the head table is long and rectangular, putting several together to give you the seating you need.  this table is set at the "head" of the room so that everyone can stare at you.

Answer 10

We didn't have a head table - we had a family table consisting of my parents, my sister (MOH) and her boyfriend, husband's parents, husband's brother (BM) and wife, my husband and I.

On either side of us we had a bridesmaids table (three girls with their dates) and a groomsmens table (three guys with their dates).

Answer 11

what we did was sit me my husband and both sets of parents and  the best man.

does it matter if you stick to etiquette, its what YOU want that matters !!!!!!

Answer 12

We had the bridal party sit at the headtable along with the two of us. Our parents each sat at the tables that were right next to the head table. It worked out nice because my parents and his parents had family that they didn't get to see very often - so we sat them all at the same table so they could catch up. I think that's the best way to do it...just keep both parent's tables close to the head table.  

Answer 13

We had ourselves and our bridal party - fourteen people total (including the two flower girls) - at our head table.

The regular head table is usually a long rectangular table, as somebody mentioned.  With fourteen people, it's a stretch to think those at the ends would be able to see each other, or anybody besides their immediate neighbor.  We did a bit of a twist on this set up:  We had two round tables flank a rectangular table.  That way, our whole party could see and talk to each other without bobbing and avoiding others' heads.  We were still all facing towards the room, and nobody's back was towards the room, or the "action."  It was the best of both worlds, I think.

Our parents sat with their friends at a table directly across from us.