Setting Up Seating for an Outdoor Wedding Ceremony

The layout of your outdoor wedding ceremony needs to consider three things. The first is the most picturesque placement for the altar and the couple to take their vows. The second is giving your guests easy access to their seats and enough room. And the third is making sure the whole thing runs as smoothly as possible.

Finding the best placement for the altar

Think about your wedding ceremony in terms of taking a photograph. You’ll probably have a photographer, so look at the venue from the perspective of the photographer to find the best placement for the altar. What scenery do you want as a backdrop? And then work from there, setting up the altar and the seating for your guests.

Light

Always consider the light and where the sun is going to be when you set up an outdoor wedding ceremony. Although a beautiful sunset in the background as you say your vows sounds amazing, it can create some difficulties. Your guests will be sitting, facing the sun, and that can make it hard for them to see, not to mention uncomfortable. With the sun setting behind the couple, each photo will also be back-lit, so it may be hard to get a good picture.

Consider the light when you choose the time of day for your outdoor wedding ceremony and where you want the altar to be placed.

Enough space for guests and wedding party

You don’t want your guests to be tripping over each other to get to their seats, and you want to have room for your wedding party to stand comfortably up at the altar. Give your wedding party and yourselves, plenty of room to walk down the aisle to the altar, and make sure there is plenty of room between your wedding party and the first row of chairs for the guests. You don’t want your wedding party to be standing on the toes of the first row, and you want to place the first row about 5-6 feet from the altar to give them a comfortable view.

Leave enough space down the aisle, by the altar and in between rows.

There should be about 2 feet in between each row to allow everyone enough room.

Seating instructions

Make sure everyone is aware of where they should be sitting. Typically, everyone knows that the parents will sit in the front row, but after that, you may want to give a few instructions so that seating runs as smoothly as possible. You don’t have to assign every single seat, but make sure that the most important guests get the best seats up front, and that everyone knows.

Rent everything you need for an outdoor wedding ceremony at Colorado Party Rentals.