What is Proper Seating Etiquette
WHAT IS PROPER SEATING ETIQUETTE
There actually is no right or wrong way when it comes to seating in my opinion, but it certainly can a fun part of your dinner party planning.
When it comes to your seating chart (here's hopping everyone gets along and/or likes one another) then it's a no brainer. But what if that is not the case?
How to approach the actual deciding factor of who sits where.
-Let's say everyone gets along. So this is really easy. You can go with simply SEAT YOURSELF, DINNER IS READY approach or you can do a standard boy, girl, boy, girl seating arrangement. You can also decide to have all the women at one side of the table and the men at the other end. This makes conversations flow better if you have a lot of chatty Kathy's:)
-Let's say there's a person or a couple that don't quit get along with someone else or some family members who just don't see eye to eye. Let's talk about it because we ALL have been in those situations. To avoid any awkwardness think about who is best to be next to that person or couple. There's always someone in a persons group that is the easy going/buffer type person to help with a situation like this. Focus on creating the ease for a situation like this and everything will fall into place.
Now the fun part; how to have your guests find their seats.
My go to and the obvious way is to have name cards at their seat. Now there are many fun ways to do this: you can pin a tag onto some fruit, or to an herb, add a flower with their name attached or if you want to get real fancy add their name to the top of their menu or to their plate.
Or even these beautifully printed up names found on Etsy are also classy and so unexpected.
Another fun way is to split up the couples. Especially if you are hosting a dinner that not everyone knows one another. This is a fun way to get your guests to mingle and talk to others they don't know.
Here are some fun and playful ways to have your guests find their seats:
Give them an item that they then have to find the matching piece to it. For example an earring, a matching bracelet, a card with their initials, colored candy, or maybe even give them a question and the answer is on the plate. Like "What month is Halloween?" If you create questions around your theme you have outdone yourself and already tied it all together. And if you want to get even FANCIER and spend $$$ how about a shoe? I would DEFINITELY never want to miss your dinner party if you gave out shoes! HAHA!!
But have fun and be creative here.
The whole point is to add the spontaneity for your guests especially if they are not all super close friends. Besides, it's fun to shake things up.
August 30th, 2021
