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I don't think it looks like a cafeteria! My only question is where are you going to sit? I would do your head table or your sweetheart table at the end of the dancefloor so it's centered so everyone can see you (diagram below). I think that's a much better option than doing tables around the perimeter because as you said it will be a pain for people to get to their seats.
Head Table
___________ Dance _____________
___________ Floor _____________
___________ _____________
We have a very similar set up. We're running two 8' tables end to end for each set of tables. I've seen it in photos and I think it looks cosy and picnic-y rather than cafeteria style. Our tables are also 30" wide which kind of sucks, I really wanted the 40" extra wide ones, but our rental company assured me it would be fine. Apparently this table in my inspiration photo is 30":
This is our floorplan:
Sorry, I should say, the big pointy oval thing is a firepit my venue built in the middle of our event space (agh!!!! but i'm dealing with it), and we're doing a little square sweetheart table in front of it. Our dance floor is the bottom left.
Thanks! Yes actually that was exactly my plan. I'm glad you don't think it looks like a cafeteria. I'm worried that 30 inches is too narrow. I need to fit two place settings and flowers/centerpices width-wise!
@bakerella: Thank you! I like your floor plan and I think the fire-pit is actually pretty cool. It looks like things are a little tight in the pic, but doable. I'm glad to see you're doing something similar and I'm not the only one!
I agree with Bakerella you can totally make 30" work. It will be a little narrow but just make sure your centerpieces don't have a large footprint and you'll be fine. Honestly, from my experience at my own wedding and others.. people don't spend much time at their tables anyway!
You could also do a swag down the center of the table, I think we are using lemon balm (similar setup)
Okay. You know what I'm going to do? I'm really curious about this too, so I'm going to do a trial run, take a photo and post it for both of us :) Be back in a few!
Are you ready for this? I spread out the table cloth to 30" so ignore the rest of my table sticking out. Also, my table isn't quite 8' (I think it's like 7'-4"), so if you're doing 8/table people will have a pretty comfortable amount of elbow room which is terrific. Here's what it looks like with plates, side plates, bit of cutlery, and some vases. I don't have any fresh flowers in the house to make it prettier, so use your imagination ;)
And then my set up with the piece of wood running down the centre. It's a bit tight, I had to squeeze in the wine glasses but it's doable. The wood isn't what I'm using obviously, but I thought the width (just over 6") would help for perspective. I'm hoping we'll find 4" wide boards.
Verdict: 30" is totally fine! And this was totally just an excuse to spread out my new linens for the wedding that came today btw ;)
@bakerella: And this is why weddingbee is amazing and you are totally awesome for doing this. I am unreasonably thrilled by your finding, and those pictures. It looks fine. IM SO HAPPY. But get this - I also want to do family-style service. My caterer said it would be okay because she would just have dishes removed afterwards. But I suppose it just means there can't be centerpeices all the way down. They will have to be a spread out to make it work. Are you doing plated?
I wish I could do long tables. I think my venue only does round and I don't want to spend extra money on tables :(
@Ngolden1: Ya, we're doing a plated meal. If you're doing family style you would have to spread out your centrepieces for sure. You'd also have to be careful of the width of the plate it was being served on, I'm not sure you could squeeze another plate between the settings... Otherwise I would ask if maybe you could use those little fold out tables that waiters have for their trays and maybe have people put their food there after passing it around?
@Ngolden1: No problem at all by the way, I've been going over it a million times in my head, so the timing with my linens arriving today worked out perfectly! I'm more than happy to help!
@bakerellaYou are a sweetheart for doing this, photographing it & posting it!!
@bridesmomma: I've got time on my hands, I totally don't mind! Plus it's somewhat selfish, I was worried about the 30" width of my tables too! :)
i like your second drawing.. we had eight foot tables and put the head to to make square tables... we left gaps between each square so that they sat 12 per table and had room in between
@brittanymichelle: I'm trying to picture what you did. So four tables became a square, with space in the middle?
I love the long tables too. I am also having my reception in a barn and I choose thelong tables over the round. I am going to put them together to make then 5X6 around with blue and white damask runners in the center. I am also considering leaving some stand alone. I havent yet played with the layout but I am working on it. I like your floor plan. If you wanted to change anything I think the dance florr would look fine accross from the fire pit on the other side of your sweetheart table with the guest tables behind it facing the other way. Al in all I like everything you have done , it's gonna look great! I googled square tables at reception and found some great pics you should do that too or ever square floor plans pics.
@amberdawn1064: I thought about putting the dance floor up there, but then there would be four tables right across the front of the tent (right now you'd enter where the dance floor is at the bottom), so the people sitting there would constantly be having the waiters brush past them, etc. It would be annoying as heck. So by putting the dance floor in the bottom it creates a natural traffic corridor. Plus I can put FFIL and his annoying wife on the other side of the firepit and keep them far away from us ;)
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Please bear with me. My reception is in a barn and long tables come with the venue. I wanted these right away after I looked at pics of them online. My venue has 10 eight foot tables, and 20 six foot tables. Each are 30 inches wide. We could line the barn with long tables, all the way around the perimeter, by putting them head to head against each other. We run into issues though because this arrangement may not seat enough. Also, since the tables run the entire length of the barn, we are worried about guests having to walk all the way around to get to their seats, and about so many of them having their backs to the dance floor.
The other option is to do horizontal rows - so we have two tables length-wise (so either twelve feet long or 16 feet long), and they would all be parallel to each other on each side of the barn. Like this:
_________ Dance Floor __________
_________ __________
_________ __________
This arrangement would fit more people and probably be more comfortable for them. However, and maybe I'm overthinking it, but does this look like a cafeteria? I am not going for the lunch-room feel here.
Next issue: The tables are 3o inches wide. Is this too narrow? Most long tables I see online look like two put together, so probably about 60 inches wide. How wide are your long tables? Not sure whether there is a way I could do this and still have enough room for everyone.
Basically I'm freaking out because the wedding is less than four weeks away. Of course we don't know how many people are coming yet, which makes it that much harder to know what we're working with. If this isn't going to work out we have to rent round tables and throw away the look I've been aiming for this whole time. So what do you think? Please share any thoughts or your experiences with long tables.