You May Be Seated



WRITER CREDIT: 
PHOTOGRAPHER CREDIT: 

Follow etiquette protocol to the letter and you have an inarguable dictate for who sits where during your reception dinner and ceremony. To find salvation in tradition, here’s what Cindy Grosso from Charleston School of Protocol suggests for Protestant weddings: At The Ceremony • If they are not part of the ceremony, the bride’s and groom’s siblings sit in the second pew on their respective sides, along with their spouses. Aunts, uncles, and other family members sit in the third pews. • The groom’s grandmothers are seated in the third row on the groom’s side. Grandfathers follow behind and are seated with them. • The bride’s grandmothers sit on the third row on the bride’s side. Grandfathers follow. • The groom’s mother is seated on the first row on the right, followed by the groom’s father. • The mother of the bride is escorted by a son or other usher to the first row on the left. This signals that the processional is about to begin. Once the bride’s father has given his daughter away, he will join his wife in her pew. n If either the bride or groom’s divorced parents are on friendly terms and have not remarried, they share the first row. Remarried mothers of the bride and groom sit in the first row with their current spouses. However, if the couple’s fathers are remarried, each will sit with his current wife in the fourth row. At The Reception • Most seated receptions have an elevated table for the bride and groom to face their guests. The bride always sits on the groom’s right, the maid of honor sits on the groom’s left, and the best man on the bride’s right. Boy-girl seating continues until the head table is full. • The bride’s father sits at the head of the table, with the groom’s mother on his right. Across the table is the bride’s mother with the groom’s father on her right.

The Wedding Row

October 11 2018
Check out these all-time best engagement rings from our vaults Does your SO need a little hint-hint, nudge-nudge in the engagement ring department? Have no fear, because we’ve rounded up our top...

October 10 2018
During the summer of her junior year at College of Charleston, Lauren studied abroad with a pair of fellow Cougars who kept telling her she had to meet their friend Dante when they all got back home...

October 9 2018
One Monday night, at an East Carolina University bar in Greenville, North Carolina, Pirates Nina and Brett bonded over, as she sheepishly jokes, their love of a good deal on beer. But there was...

October 8 2018
The Wedding Row: Start us at the beginning. How did you two meet? Kate: Edward and I met through work in 2014. We were both living in Washington D.C. and Edward needed some software configured on his...

October 5 2018
We love a groom who goes above and beyond for his bride-to-be, and JP did just that when he scooted down to Charleston from Charlotte, North Carolina, and back again in the same day to ask his...

October 4 2018
For shutterbug Kate Timbers, the 200-year-old The Unitarian Church in Charleston is the perfect location for romantic portraits, timeless ceremonies, and more. With the church’s pastel-blue arched...

October 3 2018
We love a pair who embrace big, bold statements and big, bold flavors with all the mannerly trappings in their Big Days. Enter Amanda and Preston, who not only hosted a posh wedding at The River...

October 2 2018
Some of the best romances we know of are rom-coms, and Amanda and Will’s story is no exception. While Will tried to stage the world’s dreamiest proposal, complete with a romantic dinner,...