The Royal Head Table
King’s table….it just sounds grand, doesn’t it? Here in America, far from the royals, we have come to call these special seating spaces at weddings and other events as head tables, the place where you would seat your wedding party, or your closest family members and friends. As a premier Chicago area event decor and design company, we love to incorporate head tables as a focal point of a room’s design. Not only are they a fabulous way to treat your most valued guests to a top-notch seat in the reception hall, but these special tables serve as an opportunity to really elevate the decor of the room.
We love to design around either of the two main head table options that couples typically select. One option considers head tables solely for the special guests with the newlyweds at their own small, intimate sweetheart table. The other option is the more traditional set-up with the bride and groom sitting centrally at one long table facing all the other guests, with their wedding party sat to each side of them. Design considerations for these tables are then made once the couple determines how they will seat themselves and their special guests.
In the more trending case, when the couple opts for their own sweetheart table, head tables are placed close to where the bride and groom have their table. And, if you’re having a dance floor, many couples like to have two head tables, flanking each side of the dance floor. In this scenario, we love to have seating on all sides of the head tables so that the chairs add balance and symmetry with grand and impactful decor elements incorporated into the head table design. This set-up allows for decorators to take the design of these tables upward. For a real impact statement, we use tall floral or greenery laden structures alight with candle bulbs strung from chain-linked crystal strands. These structures can be designed with any theme or style in mind. Most recently, we had a client that requested a Beauty and the Beast design theme and we incorporated lots of red roses as the main element of their head tables. We have so many more options available to couples who choose to do dual head tables. For a really knock-out look, you can have gold, curved tables with chiavari chairs.
If the happy couple are opting to join their guests at one large head table, then we recommend this table to be centrally located as a focal point of the room, arranged so that from where the bride and groom are sitting, they can look out to see their family and friends. Their wedding party or friends and family would then sit on both sides of the couple, all facing the rest of the guests. In this design scenario, we keep the table decor low but lush and lux!
As a complement to either of these design scenarios, you can add separate, large circular tables with the middle section cut-out where we can place heightened decor, such as lovely cherry blossom trees or a giant floral centerpiece with candles all around. The possibilities are endless!
Now the only thing left for you to decide is who sits at these coveted tables!