The evening
Length and width are optional here. Without them you still get the minutes, the holding space and both hire lists. With them, both layouts are drawn against the same walls.
The evening, as three acts
01 · Ceremony
Rows, centre aisle
120 chairs in the room. The rounds are not. A 5 ft aisle is both the processional and the accessible route.
02 · The window
45 min · crew of 4
Guests stand somewhere else. Look for 720–1,200 sq ft of holding space — a foyer, a terrace, a gallery — not overflow in a corridor.
03 · Dinner
Rounds in
The same chairs, reset. Tables, linens and the dance floor arrive during the window. They were never ceremony furniture.
About 45 minutes, and a crew of 4
120 guests are not in the room while it flips. Look for about 720–1,200 sq ft of holding space — a foyer, a terrace, a gallery — sized as a standing reception, not as overflow in a corridor.
What stays, and what comes in
Reused
120
Chairs
120 chairs serve both layouts. They have to move, they do not have to be hired twice.
Brought in
15
60 in round
The rounds are not in the room during the ceremony. They come in during the 45-minute window, 15 of them.
Brought in
15
90 in round linen
Cloths dress the rounds as they land. They are not on the ceremony chairs.
Brought in
16
3 × 3 ft dance-floor panel
The dance floor is dinner furniture. Laying it during the ceremony is how the aisle disappears.
Ceremony — rows with a centre aisle
Add a length and a width to see this layout drawn against the walls.
120chairs
Chairs
120 chairs in rows. The solver draws them 22 in wide at a 36 in row pitch, with a 5 ft centre aisle.
Dinner and dancing
Add a length and a width to see this layout drawn against the walls.
15tables
60 in round
120 guests ÷ 8 = 15 60 in rounds. The solver draws this size at a 10 ft pitch.
120chairs
Chairs
One per guest. Banquet chairs and Chiavari chairs take the same count; the difference is a style, not a number.
15cloths
90 in round linen
A 90 in cloth on a 60 in table is a standard drop. Floor-length is a different cloth.
16panels
3 × 3 ft dance-floor panel
144 sq ft — 40% of 120 on the floor at 3 sq ft each, about 12 × 12 ft. Panels are 9 sq ft, so 16 of them. Dinner and dancing already includes this floor in the planning factor; it is still a thing you hire.
1station
8 ft bar station
8 × 3 ft each, plus the 6 ft apron nobody seats into. The apron is floor, not furniture.
Ask, in writing
- Ask where 120 guests stand for 45 minutes, whether that space is weatherproof, and who supplies the crew of about 4.
- Ask whether the same chairs may be used for dinner, and who moves them.
- Ask for a drawn layout of both sets in this room — ceremony rows with a 5 ft aisle, then the rounds — not one capacity figure covering both.
- Look for about 720–1,200 sq ft of holding space (a foyer, a terrace, a gallery) sized as a standing reception of 120, not as overflow in a corridor.
What this assumes
- The guests are not in the room while it flips. A cocktail hour that is also the holding space is the usual answer, and it needs floor, a bar and a restroom of its own.
- Minutes come from the same turnover model the guest-flow instrument uses — about 40 chairs and 6 tables an hour per crew member, never a promise about this crew.
- Neither drawing is the venue's floor plan. Each is the plan this room would take at conventional clearances, so a shortfall is a finding rather than a decoration.
The furniture itself: What do I need to hire?