How to Seat Guests at a Dinner Party
You could be ready to host a dinner party after decorating your table with fancy china and cooking tasty food. But you may have forgotten to set one thing in place: a seating arrangement for your guests. Imagine guests coming to your house, being confused about where to sit.
5-Minute Crafts suggests having a seating arrangement ready before their arrival to make your dinner party and atmosphere successful.
For the hosts
If the table is rectangular, the seats at the edges of the table are the head seats. The person who’s looking after the cooking takes the seat nearest to the kitchen. If the table is square or round, then whichever seat the host chooses to sit in is the head seat.
For the important guests
The guest of honor is seated on the right side of the host, and the most important guests occupy the right-hand seats. The second guest of honor is placed on the left side of the host, and the other second-most important guests occupy the left-hand seats. Less important guests’ seating arrangements are according to their ranks.
- If a woman is a guest of honor, then she is seated to the right side of the host. If she’s married, then her husband is to be seated to the right side of the hostess.
For the partners
Try your best not to seat couples together. But if the couples are newlyweds, newly dating, or like to sit together, it’s traditional to place them together. Otherwise, partners must sit opposite each other. In this way, they can talk to each other without making other people on the sides feel excluded.
Who you can rank as your guests of honor
- Someone visiting from another country or a client of yours
- A guest with military or government rank
- A guest who is elderly
- A guest with a reputed career or other significant achievements
- Someone who is celebrating an occasion like a promotion, a transfer, or a birthday
For the shy and talkative guests
You can seat your talkative guests in the middle or at the ends of the table to keep the conversations flowing. You can have shy guests sit next to you to help them feel comfortable and break the ice. You also may want to ask them to help you out to serve or to help pass around the food so that they have an excuse to talk with all the guests.
For the guests who don’t see eye to eye
Place them far away from each other and close to those they really like. If this is still not applicable, you may want to consider inviting them separately, as it is not worth spoiling the atmosphere of your dinner party.
Bonus tips
