Seating Arrangement Etiquette

Separate husbands and wives. They should never be seated side by side at a dinner or luncheon table. 

“Ring Around a Rosy” ...  and they all had a seat!

 Have hostess and host at foot and head of table respectively. Alternate men and women about the table.

Nancy and Lois were eating in a down town tea room and began to comment on the way in which people grouped themselves at the tables. They finally drew diagrams of the way folks should seat themselves. They saw two gentlemen come in with two ladles. The waitress showed them to a round table. The two men sat side by side and the two women side by side. True, this gave each lady a gentleman on one side of her but the table could better have been arranged so that each lady had a gentleman on each side. 

The top arrangement shows the diagram which Nancy drew. Then they watched another group of six who were seated at an oblong table. Evidently it was a party and the lady and gentleman who were entertaining had two husbands and wives as their guests. By seating them as shown in the lower diagram it was possible to do all these things which are socially correct: Have hostess and host at foot and head of table respectively. Alternate men and women about the table.

Separate husbands and wives. They should never be seated side by side at a dinner or luncheon table. The lady who was hostess has a gentleman at either side of her and the host has a lady on either side of him. The lady who sits on his right is the wife of the man who sits on the hostess’ right, and the lady on his left is the wife of the man who sits on the hostess’ left. – Florence LaGanke as “Nancy Page” for the San Pedro Pilot, 1929

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