The Wedding Banquet
Sitting or standing?
Having made the necessary premises last Sunday, it is now time to start talking about the post-celebration ceremony. What I have called the wedding banquet begins to take shape after making some thoughtful choices: first of all, the time.
It might seem trivial, but certain types of banquets cannot take place regardless of the portion of the day in which they will occur. Therefore, a few simple rules must be followed for ceremonies taking place during the day or in the evening.
Tradition has it that a wedding banquet during the day be "a seated lunch".
With this expression we want to indicate a banquet that will take place from 1pm to about 5pm and which provides for the setting up of one or more tables at which all the seats assigned to the guests will be indicated.
The rule just outlined therefore provides that the guests are not seated by chance, but on the basis of what has been established by the newlyweds, who will prepare place cards with the names, and that the entire lunch is served at the tables. It is the most classic and elegant type of banquet although, lately, it has been integrated with a buffet part to prevent guests from sitting for too long. The buffet part is generally the initial part of the aperitif and then that of the final cake.
On each place there is a placeholder with the name and the menu with an indication of all the courses, the wines in combination and an initial wording with the name of the newlyweds and the date. The place of each diner must be set with all the glasses provided for the different wines, cutlery and a placemat with a napkin on which the plate will be placed. When the wedding banquet is for just a few guests, about thirty at the most, the English service can also be arranged (I will return to this last point at the appropriate time).
The set-up can include a single large table or several tables: in the first case, the bride and groom will have to sit halfway along the long side of the table, in the second case the so-called table of honor can be provided, which is the one where the newlyweds will seat together with their parents, best men and brides of honor.
It is important to assign seats at the table of honor according to strict rules: to the right of the bride there will be, sequentially, her father, her mother and the maids of honor; to the left of the bride, on the other side, there will be the groom, his parents and his best men, to replicate the bride's side in a symmetrical way.
Sometimes, the table of honor is made up of just the married couple but it is not a setting that I would recommend, as it has never been one of my preferences.
Whenever the bride has or wants to get up, the men at the table will get up and do the same thing when she comes back to sit down (in fact, this is a general rule that applies even outside the wedding banquets).
If the ceremony takes place in the evening, the version of the buffet dinner can be considered: it is a form of intermediate dinner in which the guests can go to the tables where the dishes are set up and displayed to serve themselves or be served by the waiting staff. They can sit at the any table without seats being assigned. It is a less formal type of dinner but equally cared for in the smallest details because the tables will have to be set up with floral decorations.
In any case, I would recommend a seated lunch with assigned seats.
Until next Sunday, with much more on the wedding banquet topic.