Every venue publishes a number. Almost none of them publish what the number assumes, which is why two venues claiming 250 can hold very different weddings.
The three numbers
Standing capacity is the largest and the least useful. It is the fire-code figure with no tables in the room.
Seated capacity is the one that matters, and it usually means every guest at a table with no other use of the floor.
Seated with a dance floor is the honest number, and it is the one to ask for. On a room quoting 250 seated, a dance floor for a hundred and fifty guests takes roughly 40 to 50 square metres out of it - which is thirty to forty seats.
Our hall seats three hundred with the floor still open. That is the figure we publish because it is the one you can plan against.
What a guest actually needs
- About 1.1 to 1.4 square metres a head at a round table, once you allow for chairs pushed back and a service lane.
- A 60-inch round seats eight comfortably and ten at a squeeze. The squeeze is where elbows meet.
- Long tables seat more people per square metre than rounds, which is why family style fits more guests in the same room.
- A dance floor wants roughly 0.4 square metres for every guest you expect to be on it at once - which is never everybody.
Where the number goes wrong
Head tables, sweetheart tables, cake tables, gift tables, a photo booth, a band rather than a DJ - each takes floor. A band with a drum kit needs about three times a DJ's footprint. If you are at 90% of a room's capacity before adding any of that, you are over.
Reading it honestly
Take the venue's seated figure, subtract your dance floor, subtract your band, and leave ten per cent. If your list still fits, it fits. If your list runs past two hundred and fifty, the shortlist around Stark County gets very short, which is worth knowing before you fall in love with a room that cannot hold your family.
See the room on the Stone Hall page, or price your own guest count.