Long table wedding seating plan
Long tables are everywhere at barn, garden and vineyard weddings. They photograph well and make dinner feel shared. Seating them is not the same as seating rounds, though: at a round table everyone can see and talk to everyone; at a long table each guest really talks to the two beside them and the three across. This guide is about building the plan around that.
Banquet, feasting or trestle: what each one is
- Standard rectangular table: usually 6 ft by 30 in (about 1.8 m by 0.75 m). Seats 6, three per side, or 8 with the ends.
- Feasting or king's table: several rectangular tables pushed into one long run under a single cloth. It can seat 20, 40 or more.
- Banquet rows: long tables in parallel rows, the classic barn and marquee setup.
Ask your venue or rental company what sizes they have and how many chairs they put per table. For your own sums, allow about 24 in (60 cm) of table per guest: a 16 ft run seats 8 per side, 16 in all.
Do the sums first
With long tables you count by length, not by table:
- Count everyone who eats seated, children included.
- Divide by the seats on each long table (say 16).
- Round up, and add a table if you have big families: a family of 6 does not get split across two tables.
For 120 guests at tables of 16, that is 8 long tables, plus the head table if you have one. Leave at least 4.5 ft (1.4 m) between rows so a seated guest can push their chair back and servers can pass behind.
The ends of the table
The ends are the awkward seats: whoever sits there is cut off from the middle conversation, knocks the table legs and sits in the servers' path. Two tips:
- Skip the end seats if you can. Many feasting tables are set with no chairs at the ends.
- If you use them, give them to someone who gets on with everyone, or a couple who need no help mixing.
At a wedding the end is not the seat of honor it is at a formal dinner; the seat that matters is the head table.
Splitting groups along the table
At a round table a group of 10 fills it. At a long table of 16, groups meet at their edges, and that is a strength: a big family sits in one unbroken stretch, and where it ends another group with something in common can start.
- Order groups by affinity along the table: the bride's mother's family, then her friends, then the work friends who know them. Each group stays together and the edges connect.
- Couples across from each other or side by side: across, they talk more with the people around them; side by side, they are more at ease if they know nobody. Both work. Three seats apart does not.
- Nobody alone at the edge of a group: the friend who came solo sits in the middle of people they know, not at the seam.
- People who don't get along go at different tables: at a long table, "the other end" is still the same table, and they will see each other all night.
The head table
With long tables the head table is usually one more long table, facing the room or across the top of the rows in a T. The couple sit in the middle facing the guests, with parents, the wedding party or both on either side. If you have a sweetheart table for two, families take the long tables closest to it. More in the wedding seating etiquette guide.
Numbering long tables
With a few long tables, one number or name each is enough. With 6 or more, it helps if the sign at the entrance also says which part of the table: "Table 3, garden side" or "Table 3, dance floor end". If there are place cards at every setting, the table number on the chart is enough and guests find their own name at the table.
Put the number on the end of the table that faces the entrance, not in the middle: it is the first thing guests see as they walk in.
Kids
At a long table, young children sit with their parents. With many kids aged 5 and up, the end of one long table works well for them: they sit together without a separate kids table, with their parents a few seats away. More in the kids table guide.
Mixing rounds and long tables
Plenty of venues mix them: a feasting table down the middle with rounds around it, or long tables for family and rounds for friends. It works. Just decide first which groups go on which kind of table, because a long table and a round are not split the same way.
Make it free with Wedtide
In Wedtide pick the "Banquet (long tables)" style and the room is laid out with long tables of 16, seated on both sides with no chairs at the ends. Change the number of tables and seats per table, paste your guest list (one family or couple per line, or copied straight from Excel or Google Sheets), mark who must never share a table and who must always sit together, and Wedtide decides which group goes at which table without splitting couples or families. Add a head table with the wedding party, drag anyone to move them, walk the room in 3D and print the list by table and the QR sign. The order of seats along each long table is yours to finish with this guide. Free, no account, on your phone or laptop.