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03/01/2025
3 Smart Options for Seating the Bride and Groom
Looking for options on where to sit at your wedding? Look no further than this Facebook post! We’ll share the time honored traditions, innovations in the last 40 years, and what’s on trend for today.
Let’s explore!
The high or head table:
If you’ve ever seen a TV show set in medieval or Tudor times, you’ve seen the high table. It’s where the king and queen sit while all the other members of the court sit down below them. That’s a high table or a head table, a one-sided head table which was perpendicular to the long tables set for the guests.
While the bride and groom always sat at the head table, who else sat with them depended on which of three typical seating arrangements was chosen.
1. According to Emily Post’s etiquette rules, the seating was boy-girl. From the left to the right, those who sat at the high table were a groomsman, a bridesmaid, the best man, the bride, the groom, the maid/matron of honor, a groomsman, and a bridesmaid.
2. At other weddings, the bride sat on the groom’s right and all her gal pals sat beside her while the groomsmen all sat in a line next to the groom.
3. Their closest family members sat at the head table. In families in which beloved grandparents or great-grandparents attended the wedding, this seating arrangement was more common.
Like the royalty of old, this head table was often elevated a step above the guests’ tables down on the floor.
The sweetheart table:
Before the 1980s, weddings were often very formal. The newlyweds sat at an elevated head table like royalty. The sweetheart table—a small table for just the bride and groom to eat together—was the antithesis of this one-sided king’s table.
Sometimes, the sweetheart table was custom-made for the couple, and they took it home after the wedding.
This trend has gone a step further: Adam Johnson, who reclaims fallen trees from city parks (with the city’s permission, of course), turns that wood into beautiful furniture such as sweetheart tables. Often, he adds an engraved plaque with the names of the couple, the wedding date, and any other info they want so that the table becomes a keepsake.
On trend: Sitting with the guests:
The latest trend is that the newlyweds sit at a table with their guests instead of being separated from them at the high table.
The image is courtesy of Fritz Photo.
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