To not want to do a table plan for our wedding?

[RidingHood]

We're getting married next Friday and we have organised our wedding fairly quickly and as such it is quite a low budget wedding.

DH2B's parent's have kindly paid for the catering but apart from that we've not really had any other help. As such we have gone for an informal buffet for 150 at the reception.

Last week, DH2B's father decided it would be best to book us an MC for the wedding to take the strain away, which I agreed with and we have a meeting with him and the caterers tomorrow.

However, DH2B's parents have now suggested strongly that we should have a seating plan for the wedding so that their family and friends can all sit together near the top table.

I am reluctant to do this, as whilst their family is MC (sorry to say it) and very small and structure - I have a rather large and dysfunctional family and I wouldn't necessarily know where to seat them - more to the point I have friends whom are much closer than family and would rather have them nearer to the top table.

DH2B's family are much more likely to be fussy about who sits where, I am confident that my family and friends will just grab a chair and sit where they like.

Basically what I am trying to say, very inarticulately, is that whilst I don't want there to be chaos on the day, I don't want my guests to be interrogated on arrival and dictated to as to where to sit - the last thing I want to do would be to offend people. Also, I have pointed out to DH2B's parents that this is an informal reception with a buffet and I expect people to mingle..

I don't know what to do...any advice would be gratefully received!!

I can't believe how many typos are in that ^^ I am ashamed of myself.

We had a top table and then 70 guests on 2 long banqueting tables - we had about 8 people not turn up on the day and it meant that everyone just shoved up - and didn't leave any gaps. Worked fine for us, I think the hotel staff made sure that people moved right up, but this was all done before we swanned in!

DO a seating plan.

We were random guests at an informal wedding (we only got invited the day before - obviously someone had dropped out) and we ended up practically opposite the bride and groom (whom I had never met and DH had worked with briefly the year before). We were right next to Father of the bride (and his glamorous new wife) whilst bride's mum was pushing granny in her wheelchair at the back of the room near the toilets somewhere.
We and all our (not so well-behaved kids) must be on the edges of all the speech photos and in the corner of the video.
In five twenty years time they are going to look back and think WTFAT?
And, before you say we should have got up and and offered Bride's mother our seats - well, shouting that across the room would have made the situation tons worse, I was BFing and just need to sit somewhere and we didn't really have much choice.
Formal things like seating plans are there for a reason. It'll take you five minutes and save Debbie from accounts sitting in between you and your new DH...
Have a great day!

"If you have friends right next to and ILs at the back, you will ruffle feathers"
not just the relative's feathers, If I was one of the friends I'ld feel a bit wierd /awkward about this too

plus if the friends have kids they will WANT to be near the back so they can pop in and out if they need to and they don't need to worry too much if their kids are causing a bit of a mess with their food etc

It will be hardest for the ILs to "bag" a decent seat as they will have the most people comming up and chatting to them too

Can you have the top table on the longest wall or even right in the middle so you can be as near your friends as possible?

I've been at two where the layout meant that every table was next to the top table:

long top table going right across the room with other tables going down from it at right angles banquet style.