The Challenging Art of Seating Arrangements

            On Saturday, my wife and I went to the wedding of our former roommate. It was a lovely wedding that took place at a beautiful historical building. The ceremony itself was outside, and the weather was absolutely perfect (although, we did end up sitting next to someone) and the reception and dance were held inside one of the estate’s buildings.

            Weddings are always interesting to go to, particularly when you get to the reception, because you never know who you’re going to know there or who you’ll be sitting beside. I've been to three weddings in the past two years (not including mine) and I've come to realise just how challenging it is to do a good job making a seating plan (working on the plan for my own wedding helped with this, too).

            The first of the three weddings was a friends’ wedding, but it was a wedding for a friend of both myself and my wife who we met through the theatre group my wife was a part of for several years and that I was part of for a show. So, naturally, we ended up at the “theatre friends’ table”, full of people we knew.

            The second wedding was my wife’s cousin’s. So, my wife and I knew a number of people, but not that many. This time we were put at a table with my sister-in-law and her boyfriend, as well as four people we never met before – cousins from the groom’s side of the family. At first, we were surprised, until we started talking with them. We then very quickly established that we were at the “geek” table (wearing a chainmaille tie helps bring out that sort of thing) and I don’t think any other table had as much fun as we did. The bride confirmed with us later that it had been very intentional.

            That brings us up to this last wedding – a friend’s again, but a bit different this time. It was a small wedding and we didn't know that many people there – we knew the bride and groom (of course) and had met the groom’s parent’s and the bride’s aunt and uncle a couple times. The only “guest” we knew well was the groom’s cousin who we used to play Dungeons & Dragons with, but we couldn't be at the same table as him because was the best man. The result was that we got seated at the “Well... where else can we put them?” table. This is the table that shows up at almost every wedding where awkward silences usually abound.

            Not this time, though. One of the other people at our table was the bride’s former (horse) riding teacher. We started talking to her early on and found out that her date had cancelled at the last minute and, as a result, she knew no one else there. She and my wife bonded over their ADD (and, later, over their mutual love of Supernatural), and we ended up chatting with her most of the night. We said less than ten words to the others seated at our table, but talking to her was a blast (she’s close to 60, teaches Zumba and has recently started power-lifting. Wow!).

            I guess it goes to show that, even though the challenging art of seating arrangements often results in a table of mismatched guests, that can end up being the funnest to be at. Either that or my wife and I (both introverts) just happen to be the life of the party.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.