Circular Ceremony Seating

There’s nothing worse than being stuck in the back rows of a wedding ceremony where one’s only glimpse of the wedding party takes place during the processional and recessional. The rest of the ceremony is usually spent staring into a man’s bald spot or a woman’s elaborate hat and straining to hear the mumbling wedding officiant. The solution, unfortunately, does not involve height-specific seating schemes — which short people like myself tend to favor for obvious reasons.

Wedding ceremony seating

Instead, if your ceremony venue allows it, why not ape this unique wedding ceremony seating arrangement designed by Colin Cowie for a beautiful wedding that took place at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Of the design, Cowie says:

…rather than using the traditional set-up seen so many times before at the Beverly Hills Hotel, I chose to reinvent the ceremony area by creating two intersecting aisle ways, with a ceremony in the middle of the aisles and guests seated all around. The focal point of the ceremony being a square center arbor decorated with a cuff of Vendela roses and backed with a fringe of hanging lime green amaranth, created a very tailored Art Deco look.

Yes, yes, Vendela roses and Art Deco aesthetics. That’s all very well and good. I’m more enamored by the fact that in this ceremony seating scheme, wedding guests of all heights can find a seat that allows them to snap a few photos of the bride and groom without having to elbow aside the couple’s immediate family.

5 Responses to “Circular Ceremony Seating”

  1. Ashley says:

    I read a post about circular seating in another blog recently: http://offbeatbride.com/2007/04/wedding-circle-seating. Has good resource links for how to arrange circular seating.

  2. Twistie says:

    That’s a cool idea that can be pretty easily adapted to a lot of spaces. I like.

    The place where Mr. Twistie and I were married had amphitheater seating on a small hillside. That was really great for making sure people got a good view, too.

  3. Juliet says:

    Love the ceremony in the round!

  4. Ashley: Thanks for the link! I bet that would be even cooler if you could incorporate walking into your wedding ceremony so everyone got a chance to hear part of your vows.

    Twistie: Ooh, amphitheater seating, lucky! That must have been awesome.

  5. Pencils says:

    I really like the idea of circular seating–also having more than one aisle. And Vendela roses are gorgeous, my wedding bouquet was about thirty Vendela roses. They’re a gorgeous creamy white with just a hint of pink. They’re very popular for weddings.