To have people standing at a wedding?

[itsallgravybaby]

More of a WWYD - hope you follow this long one

We're getting married on a budget and have hired a venue to DIY most of it. 70 guests.

For our evening reception we want to hire a marquee and the recommended size is 6x15 or 6x18 to fit some tables for 50 people and a dance floor. The cost of this is close to £2k but includes delivery, set up, lighting, flooring and dance floor.

The venue have now started hiring a 6x12m out that just goes on the grass but I don't know if it's acceptable to have less seating and just a dance floor and seating for say 30 people. It's only £500 though so a massive saving and we can DIY linings etc and they can also put a dance floor in for us too.

So my questions is AIBU to hope that most evening guests will be up dancing or mingling and not need seating for all 70 guests?

There's also some outside seating (July wedding) and will have lots of foldable chairs knocking about if they can squeeze in. We can't reduce the guest list unfortunately so that's not an option.

We didn't provide seating for everyone in the evening, the venue cleared a couple of the tables as they were on the dance floor. I think there was probably about 50 people and 30 seats. There was also some outside seating in a covered area.

Op

You know you can't bank on the weather. You need the flooring/liners etc. You don't want your guests getting impaled on a mogul mid twerk.

Want pizza now I've read this

@MarthasGinYard yes we don't want the twerking to become a health and safety concern!!😂

Evening receptions are a nightmare for this. Wedding venues always say it will be fine to have fewer seats than people and they are nearly always wrong. Even if you do not have more people on the evening than during the day, most venues remove tables/chairs to clear the dancefloor area.

I went to a wedding recently, they had a big room for dinner and then the tables and chairs moved back for the band and dance floor. The room was empty apart from a few people scattered (seated) around the room and by the bar, and people dancing. The weather was lovely so most of the men people were outside. If it's nice then I guess most would want to be outside rather than in a marquee. But, you can't guarantee the good weather. I'd definitely look into bales and blankets over them. Not everyone's cup of tea but if it were my wedding then they would be fine for most guests. Others would be happy to stand and others would want to sit.

Can you not have 2 of the £500 marquees linked together? That was it's still only a grand but enough seating and just over half the cost?

Would it be possible to ask a few of the guests to grab a chair from the eating room at the end of the meal and carry through to the dance tent on their way through? A wee announcement?

“Could I ask all you burly lads, and indeed lassies to carry a chair through to the dance floor so we have plenty through there?”

The space we have is max 6x 24. But that fills wall to wall basically

So we could have two marquees facing each other with some nice lights in between - one with music and seating and another with just seating but the music will be quieter. Also they can put the pizzas there later on.

Like this?

Oh god no everyone needs a seat.

All the women will have sore feet from new high heels and will be desperate to sit down.

Don't people generally claim a table and leave stuff (handbags, shoes, drinks) there while they go dance, you wouldn't go dance if your afraid to leave your stuff because someone else will hop into your seat! Don't do it because there's nothing worse than an empty dance floor at a wedding

They just have one £500 marquee available, but then we'd need to get a similar size one and flooring for both which would still work out cheaper for us than one bigger one.

BUT everyone would have a seat and there'd be a quieter area where the cake and pizza could be left

I wouldn't care about walking on grass inside the marquee - as long as you stated that guests would need to wear appropriate shoes (I wouldn't want to wear high heels and be sinking all the time!). I'd rather walk on grass and have a seat than stand all evening. I do think you might need to consider a dance floor of some sort though...

I'm quite liking that two tent idea.

Save having to have a welly cloakroom

I went against what everyone in my family was saying and for the evening took away 3 tables even though we were having more evening guests. We had 110 in day prob 140 in night. I took away 3 tables with 10 chairs each and there were still empty tables- people were dancing or up at bar chatting, it makes people more socialable if they're not sat down at same table with the same people all day so I think for the evening its fine!

I think most people enjoy a dance room and a quieter room.

I do agree that you're pushing it with this plan, but in the 20ish weddings I've been to in the past five years, not ONCE have I witnessed more than half the seats in the main reception/dancing area occupied. Nor have I seen any neurotic, 'mustn't leave my seat, someone will nick it' type behaviour. Yes, you get the elderly, infirm, pregnant - but hardly swarms of them!

What I do agree is that a variety of spaces/seating is optimal. What I usually see is:

50% of tables left out (so room for 50% of people to sit at tables - more if the buffet food is tricky!)
Bar stools/poser tables.
Space around the bar to stand chatting (it's usually where people bump into each other!).
Outdoor seating for smokers/fresh air (blah blah, yes it rains, but it often doesn't!).
A separate quiet space (love these!).
Dance floor - but not necessarily enormous (the older I get the emptier it is, sadly!).

A seat per person doesn't mean the weird vision of people refusing to budge because they might not be able to sit down again that people are portraying here.

In fact, the reason I'm so adamant about it is I'm usually the lame duck dragging people away to sit down and there's always acres of room!

When I got married the venue did the opposite of what you’re suggesting. We had around 150 guests in the evening, and they brought in about 50 extra chairs, and set up a couple extra at each table and added them in corners, close to the dance floor, etc. It meant that people could move around and join groups easily without having to haul chairs around, or could pause for a breather during dancing etc. Worked really well.

If it's just for the evening and you have extra folding chairs available then I don't see the problem tbh

Honestly, even if all the seats won't be occupied at all time, it's nice if guests know they are there. Most guests will move around anyway.

Definitely agree seats needed for every guest having previously experienced an evening function in a very "naice" hotel for around 80 people where just canapés were served but no seats. My feet were killing me! ☹️

Also, sorry to be a party pooper but will there be anything else to eat other than pizza and cakes? I know generally it is very popular but I couldn't eat pizza or pasta if you paid me. However, I would feel very guilty stuffing my face with cake although would thoroughly enjoy it 😁

I think this would mean less people would get up and dance mingle or go bar.

Think it would become a little "each to their own" with chairs. People would managed to get a chair and be scared to move incase they lost it.

Need chairs and no dancing on grass

Re flooring. A friend did without it for her party. A guest stumbled on the uneven tarpaulin covered ground and broke her leg. She sued the hosts.