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How to make a seating chart

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If you have made it this far, you have successfully created, labeled, mailed out all of your invites are those RSVPs are starting to roll in! Cheers to that! Now it’s time to organize everything and everyone.

Creating a seating chart can be a daunting task, but we are giving you our best tips and tricks to make it as easy as possible. Below we are breaking down the basics of seating chart organization by use of “mapping it out” and “slaying your spreadsheet”.

When we work with our clients, we have found that it is easiest to map everything out first. In doing so, you are able to see everything at once and make easy adjustments visually. Here is how to begin mapping it out.

MAPPING IT OUT

  1. Ask your venue for a PDF of the floor plan AND how many people can comfortably sit at each table. 
  2. “Blow up” the PDF of your floor plan and print it out. We recommend stopping by your local Staples or OfficeMax to have someone print it out on poster-sized paper. OR you can use paper plates and lay them out in the configuration of the tables
  3. Purchase some sticky tab post its while you are there, too!
  4. Once you have your giant floor plan printed, you can start writing names on the sticky tabs and assigning them to tables.
  5. After combing through your guest lists and assigning everyone to a table, now it’s time to move onto slaying your spreadsheet.

PRO TIP: Writing out names on sticky tabs allows you to easily move “people” to different tables as you map it all out.

SLAYING YOUR SPREADSHEET

  1. Now it’s time to put all of your hard work mapping out your seating chart into an easy to sort and search spreadsheet. This step is as easy as it sounds!
  2. Create columns with the following labels
    1. LAST NAME
    2. FIRST NAME
    3. TABLE NUMBER
      • PRO TIP: Starting with a last name makes it super easy to search a name and quick. You’ll likely have less of a variety of last names than you will first names… we are looking at you, the Sara(h) and Steve’s of the world!
      • PRO TIP: Don’t put the table number first. Have you ever been to a wedding where the seating chart was organized by table and you searched FOREVER to find your seat? Yep, we know you’ve been there. Make it easy on your guests and sort by name and list the table number after!
  3. Go through your mapped out seating chart table by table to insert names into the spreadsheet