(image credit: Wedding Chicks)
The seating chart – our final frontier. This was our last truly giant task remaining. Sure fatigue was setting in, but ol’ Faye and I had some fight in us yet.
And last night we sat down to plot it all out.
The first thing was to figure out whom we were going to sit with. We had ordered 18 round tables which could seat 8-9 people each. But when we tried to seat people with us, we kept running into problems. Our first thought was to sit with our immediate families, but we could only do that if we separated people from their spouses and children – something we didn’t want to do. The same went for our wedding party (which has nine people in it, plus significant others).
So we did something which we originally poo-poo-ed (Wow. I never thought I would use poo poo as a verb – I truly am ready for my honeymoon).
So, we are going to sit by ourselves at a “table for two” (aka “sweetheart” table). While I love a great big dinner table full of fun people and conversation, I am actually looking forward to it being just Faye and me. It might actually give us a chance to whisper/shout sweet nothings to each other over the loud music.
Eric: You look amazing tonight!
Faye: Oh my god! Who’s in a fight?
Eric: Never mind.
Faye: Remember to breathe and stay in the moment.
Eric: That’s a good idea, we should go when we get back from the honeymoon.
Faye: Go where?
Eric: To the MOMA. I wonder if they have a new photography exhibit. I love those!
One table down, 17 to go.
For these 17 tables, we made approximately one million lists. We broke people down into the following groups.
1. People who are friends with each other from PA.
2. People who are friends from Thailand.
3. Family units.
4. People who went to college or high school with each other.
5. Single people or people coming without their significant others.
6. People who are loud and talkative.
7. People who are on the shy side
Etc…
The biggest problem occurred when someone belonged to more than one group. We had a hard time keeping track of where people were and if we had put them at more than one table. Or, even worse, just when we thought we had birthed the perfect table – we realized that we had seated together two people who used to date.
Then I found a life saving website, Toptableplanning.com. This is not a paid advertisement – I am just a happy user. It is a web-based program where for $20 you can lay out the floor plan, place your tables, add or remove seats, color code for gender, meal choice, etc. It made moving people around a breeze. Truly one of the most helpful things I’ve found.
In about an hour we had everyone snugly tucked at a table. The only other thing left to do was run it all by the parents, all of whom miraculously approved.
I have to say. This wedding might have a real chance of being a great time. I can just see it now…
Eric: I almost wish we were guests at this party!
Faye: Why would we give a test to Marty?
Eric: I love you! Baby!
Faye: Maybe? You love me “maybe?” Don’t you think you should know by now?
Well – that’s it for this blog until after the wedding and the honeymoon. At which point I will be no longer frazzled nor frenzied (although I might be sun-burned and broke). I’ll be back at the end of July to tell you how it all goes down. Wish us luck!!!!
Thanks for reading…
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