Proper Wedding Seating of Parents

When the bride and groom's parents are together, they are seated in the front pew of the church, near the aisle. The bride's parents sit in the left pew and the groom's parents are seated in the right pew.

There are exceptions for certain circumstances. If either the bride or groom has a widowed parent, that parent may certainly invite a guest to be seated with him or her.

It becomes a bit more complicated if the parents of the bride or groom are divorced. The mother and stepfather if there is one, will sit in the front pew as already described.

In the next few pews, the immediate family will be seated. This includes grandparents, siblings, and so on.

The bride or groom's father will be seated in the next pew behind the rows of the mother's immediate family. If the father is remarried, his family will be seated with him. If there are hard feelings in the family, the father's wife may choose to sit elsewhere in the church, and futher back.

If the bride or groom is closer to a stepmother or is not on good terms with the mother, the father and stepmother may be seated in the front pew instead of the mother.

Still one more exception is that if the divorced parents get along well and everyone would be happy with the situation, it is sometimes perfectly acceptable to seat the parents and stepparents all in the front pew, but only if all agree to it.