Seating Conundrum

To have a wedding breakfast seating plan or not - that is the question. Why it's called a breakfast when the vast majority are in the afternoon is a historical point that's lost on me.

On the plus side  for a seating plan is that there's no anarchic free-for-all - people sit where you place them and no-one is wandering around aimlessly. The downside is that some of the guests may not know those with whom they are placed, leading to them feeling a bit out of it. You do your best, however, to  mix incongruous people together to stimulate lively chit-chat and Brexit argument.

The plus side for no formal seating plan is that people can sit with whomsoever they wish, perhaps leading to a more convivial atmosphere. The negative side is space wastage - there will always be some tables with a single spare place which a couple can't avail themselves of, meaning you have to  allow at least 10~15% more places than guests.

While I'm a seating plan Nazi (based on the assumption that people like to be told what to do), Hay tends toward the free-for-all, but doesn't get my insistence on having more places than guests, which I think is a recipe for disaster.

If there's no seating plan, we won't have a top table either. That naturally means that the key people will be spread around the remaining tables, which is not a bad idea, as they can gravitate to their own socio-economic and age demographic - or clique, as we experts call it.

Opinions?

Received the wedding car decoration ribbons from eBay yesterday - a snip at £3.99. I'm buggered if I understand the instructions though. Putting a ribbon on a car should be simple enough without having to read reams of instructions.

My off-white linen suit (from Samuel Windsor at £125 in their summer sale, which I was not keen on at the time of ordering and am still not that keen on - would have preferred blue) has been to the local tailor for alteration at the princely sum of £50, but now the cuffs are too short. I said at the fitting that I thought them a bit short, but both the tailor on the High St and Hay thought they were fine - but that was before the pink Charles Tyrwhitt shirt (£20 in their sale) with long arms arrived (no double cuff, so I can't even wear cufflinks). Makes me look like a gorilla and, knowing me, I'll end up looking like Sir Les Patterson at the reception; white and me don't mix. Going to have to get Hay's dad's girlfriend to do a quick job on the cuffs, as I'm not prepared to pay another £20 to the Chinese tailor in the High St for something I'll never wear again, unless someone decides, without my permission, to bury me in it.