When choosing how you and your newly appointed hubby want to sit at your reception there are several options for how you want your head table set up. As with all wedding decisions this is an extremely important one! Do you want to sit alone just the two of you in a sweetheart style table? Would you prefer to be seated at a standard sized round table with a handful of important people with you like your best man and maid of honor or maybe your two sets of parents? Or how about at a dais style table where you and your husband and all of your bridal party sit along a wall facing out onto the crowd?

I’m not going to lie to you all and tell you I am a big fan of any of the above seating arrangements. In my opinion you have chosen a bridal party who is the best of all of your friends and family and why should you not sit with them and have fun with them at your reception? A sweetheart table almost always turns out to be totally isolating. And a round table with your best man and maid of honor will ultimately make the rest of the bridal party feel less significant. And being lined up in a dais type arrangement can be showy and awkward, even if are you ok with leaning forward and yelling every time you want to talk to your girlfriend two people down from you. Who needs that?

My favorite of all head table arrangements is when all the bridal party – plus their dates!! – sits around one big dining table as if it you were having your own big supper party at the reception. This way the bride and groom are surrounded by the people they love the most, and those people have their dates who don’t have to sit awkwardly alone at a table on the side A bonus to this already adorable arrangement is that this big long head table can be a focal point and have some cool and interesting flowers, linens, lighting, or all of the above to signify that this is the premiere table in the room. Believe me when I tell you this set up is the most enjoyable, memorable, and super fun way to have your head table done!

To make this type of head table first determine how many people will be seated at it, then build out banquet tables end to end for as much room as you need. Add a second set of banquet tables to give some depth across, and finish off with half round tables at both ends. Then add chairs all the way around including around the ends, drape the entire table in linen, set with some stunning centerpieces, and you are good to go!

So to show off some of my beloved full bridal party head tables (which btw are sometimes referred to as Tuscan tables or Renaissance tables) here we go: