Ceremony floor plans

Dylan and I have been so excited about booking our venue and officially setting the date that most of my wedding thoughts have been about our own wedding. I've been dabbling with different color palettes for inspiration boards, but find myself preoccupied with imagining our own. I keep day-dreaming about what the tables will look like, or what sort of layout might work best for the ceremony.

If you're reading this, you've probably seen some of the photos of our venue in recent posts. It's an old church on the outside, and wide open space on the inside of the chapel area. It allows all sorts of flexibility and creativity for your ceremony and reception layouts. Maybe that kind of freedom can be a little overwhelming, because I'm having a heck of a time trying to figure out the logistics.

Here are some of the possibilities we're considering, as well as details that may be important:

The ceremony and reception are going to be held in the same room. There will be a cocktail hour / intermission held in other rooms to allow the room to be "flipped" as needed. I have no idea at this point who will be doing the actual flipping, but it seems it will either have to be hired help or family and friends who are dressed up for the wedding. That being said, I would like to keep the re-arranging pretty simple and not too labor intensive.

One option would be to have reception style seating during the ceremony. We will be using 5 foot round tables for the reception (as provided by the venue), and plan to have them set up in a scattered / off-set pattern with an aisle split down the center. If we choose to have people sit at those tables during the ceremony, I think we'd have to set the tables so that the guests would be seated in a way that allows them to face the front of the room. We'd basically have to remove several seats and place-settings per table. I'm thinking that might look weird and lop-sided, but it would also save the hassle of flipping the room.

The second option is to have chairs set up in traditional rows, similar to church pews with an aisle down the center. This is what we've both imagined when we've tried to picture the ceremony, because it is so traditional. The down-side is that it will take a lot more time and effort to re-arrange the furniture after the ceremony to get the room set up for the reception.

In both of these scenarios, there would be an aisle down the center of the seating arrangements for the processional. Before booking a venue, my mind hadn't yet considered things like, "If we get to have an aisle, how should it be decorated?" Now my mind seems to have set up camp there. I just can't picture it yet. I imagine it completely bare right now. Decorated chairs or tables nearby, and a completely blank aisle. There aren't pews to attach anything to, so I'm going to have to get creative. Almost every picture I've seen of a decorated wedding aisle involves the aisle drowning in flower petals. That sounds like a big pain to clean up, and the cautious old lady deep down inside of me thinks that sounds like a slipping hazard during the reception. I've never really put thought into things like aisle-runners and have no idea if it's something even worth considering. I don't want giant urns of flowers. I just feel like there should be SOMETHING that makes it look decorated more than a blank strip of floor. I've seen some really pretty decorations that involve candles, but every time I see those pictures I think, "How did their guests not set themselves on fire?" Or the bride with her big swishy gown, for that matter! Maybe setting yourself on fire on your wedding day would end up meaning good luck, but it seems like that would put a damper on the day. Especially if you set off the smoke alarm.

See? These are the things I'm thinking about lately.

Usually I like to offer up ideas and help other brides brain-storm for their big day. Today, I'm going for a little role reversal and encouraging everyone to offer up some ideas to me and anyone else who reads this blog. Has anyone else had the floor plan dilemma? Have you figured out a genius way to handle that? Do you think you had the most gorgeous wedding aisle ever? Spread the word and share the love. I want to hear about it. And see some pictures!

Feel free to leave comments, or send me an email!

I hope everyone's having a great weekend! We're thinking about trying to make the most of what is supposed to be the last hot summer weekend by going up Greenbluff to pick some fresh produce. I love this time of year!