What Size Table Should I Rent?

When you go to rent tables for your party you will find squares, circles, rectangles, oblongs, ovals, half-moons, serpentines etc. Then you have to deal with diameters, widths and lengths. But you’re still not done because there’s also height to consider. Sometimes too many choices can be a bad thing!

However, there is a saving grace here. When it comes down to ordering tables for a sit down affair the choices narrow considerably. Round tables and rectangle tables are used nearly 100% of the time and there are basically two ‘most common’ sizes used for each shape.

For rounds you have the 60” diameter and the 72” diameter tables and for rectangles there is the 72”x30” and the 96”x30” varieties. Yes there are more choices you will see but these four sizes are definitely the most common and will be the easiest to find a wide selection of linens for. All of these tables are a standard height of 29” or 30” – it really doesn’t matter which you get as far as linen choices go.

And now the important stuff…

So after selecting the table shape and size you would like for your party, the next step is to figure out how many tables you will need to order. Just like with tents, tables also come with varied head count recommendations. You just need to break it down to inches per person. The least space per person would be around 22” and a very generous spacing could go as high as 32” per person. The rectangle tables are simple: a 72” table is suitable for 2 or 3 people on each side with 1 person at each head giving you reasonable seating for 6-8 and a 96” table can accommodate 3 or 4 people per side for an overall seating plan of 8-10 people. If you place the tables end to end you obviously lose 2 table head seats, but you make up for it by gaining an extra seating position at each ‘joint’ where the tables meet.

Rounds take just a little more effort because first you have to determine the circumference by dusting off the algebra your eighth grade teacher swore you would need in the real world one day (and you didn’t believe her!) – so here it is:   C=2(pi)r. Take the 60” round table first. It has a 60” diameter which of course is a 30” radius. So now we have C=2(pi)30. 2 times pi times 30 = 188.4955592153876….. but you have my permission to just go ahead and round that down to 188. So there you have it. The C (circumference) value of our 60” round table is 188”. Now just go ahead and divide it by 22 and then 32 to see it can reasonably accommodate 6-8 people. The 72” works out to 7-10 people.

Yay math!

Thank you for reading this article. If you would like to see the tables, chairs and tents we have available for rent in South Florida please visit our website at: www.palmbeachpartyandbounce.com