The Wedding reception  table seating will depend upon the shape of the tables your Wedding Reception venue provides and how the tables are best arranged to make the reception look balanced for the number of guests to be seated. Round tables, for example, give a much more pleasing and spacious look than two or three long tables that join to the top table.

A typical Wedding reception table layout will have one long top table for the Wedding party and as many round tables as required for your wedding guests.

The Wedding party should avoid a round table as the view of the bride and groom will be obscured by others on the table and several of the wedding party will have their backs to the other wedding guests.

Close family and friends should be seated nearest to the Wedding party with other relatives and friends sitting further away. If you have round Wedding tables, guests with partners are usually seated side by side. If you choose to have long tables, partners are usually seated opposite each other. It is customary to alternate male and female guests. If you decide to split up couples, they should not be too far away from each other. Children should always be seated with their parents.

You should ensure as much as possible that your Wedding guests sit with people that are known to each other as this will make them feel more comfortable and facilitate good conversation. Although this will not be possible in all cases, at least try to have similar age groups or guests with similar interests seated together such as aunts and uncles, friends, work colleagues  etc. Guests may be very uncomfortable if they are seated with people they do not know.

A printed table plan positioned just inside the Wedding reception room will assist your Wedding guests to find their seating easily. The most efficient form of table plan is where Wedding guests' names are listed alphabetically with their table number printed alongside their name. An adjacent map showing the physical table layout with the table numbers marked allows Wedding guests to locate their table quickly.

As an alternative to numbering your tables, why not give each table a name, particularly if you have a theme running through your wedding. Alternatively, you might wish to name your tables after people or objects relating to an interest or hobby you both share or name each table after a poet and have a love poem written by the poet left on each table.

To ensure Wedding guests sit at the correct seat, table place cards should be used. The style of address for place cards should match the style written on your wedding invitations. If your invitations were written in the formal, traditional style of, for example, Mr. and Mrs. John Smith, the place cards should show Mr. John Smith on one card and Mrs. John Smith on another.

Traditionally, the wedding party, who sit at the top table, comprises of the bride and groom, the best man and matron of honour and if the bridal party is small, the bride and groom's natural parents. Even where the parents are separated, remarried or divorced, it is still usual for only the natural parents to sit at the top table.

You may find that in arranging your seating your wishes and those of your parents may or not be similar. Your decisions may not make everyone happy. If this is the case and a solution cannot be found, remember it comes down to the bride and groom. It would not be unreasonable to ask those who have differences to put them aside for just one day!