Creating a seating chart can be a bit overwhelming, and for good reason.
A seating chart is a guide to help your guests know where to sit during your wedding’s meal service. It can be as simple as some poster board with everyone’s name written on it. Or, as complicated as a professionally calligraphed framed mirror that includes hanging favors for guests to take home. As long as the seating charts tells them the table they are assigned to, it’s served it’s purpose.
It can be a lot to think about how to actually display your seating chart, and even more overwhelming when you consider where guests will sit, and with whom. Family dynamics may come into play, and it can be tricky to fit the perfect amount of people at each table. You may also have some conundrums such as seating your out-of-town guests in a better location than your best friends.
How To Create The Perfect Wedding Seating Chart
Luckily, this post is going to go over some of the biggest issues that come up when creating a seating chart, and how to handle them. It will calm some of those nerves you may be feeling about seating wedding guests in the ideal spots. It will also provide guidance on how to tell what may be the perfect table for some guests. Essentially, this post will help take the overwhelm out of your seating chart creation.
Here we go!
WHY A SEATING CHART MAY BE RIGHT FOR YOUR WEDDING
Some weddings are more likely to need a seating chart in order to help keep wedding guests organized and increase the guest experience. Without it, there may be some unintentional drama or anxiety. With it, your guest’s experience could be much more relaxed and enjoyable.
For example, if you are having a medium to large sized wedding, a seating chart will help guests out. Additionally, if you are serving a meal that guests pre-order, it will help your caterer know where to serve the meals. Seating charts are also great if your guests don’t know each other, because it can be awkward to try and sit at a table of strangers if you aren’t already assigned to be there.
At some weddings, it is also ideal to make sure certain guests are separated. You may have divorced parents who really do need to be on opposite sides of the room. A seating chart will make sure that there is adequate space given in awkward situations.
WHY A SEATING CHART MAY NOT BE RIGHT FOR YOUR WEDDING
Of course, a seating chart isn’t needed at all weddings.
Feel free to skip a seating chart if your wedding is super small. If you’re having just a handful of people, they can probably figure out where to sit themselves. Also, if you’re not having a seated dinner, a seating chart may not be needed at all. Cocktail receptions, weddings with food stations, or informal dining situations can have guests up and mingling with ease.
Also, you may not need a seating chart if all your guests know each other and get along. If your wedding involves only close family or a group of friends, they can all sit wherever they’d like. In this situation, your guests probably won’t feel a lot of anxiety trying to sit for dinner, and not knowing anyone there.
HOW TO CREATE SEATING CHART GROUPINGS
To first group your guests together you will need to have a general idea of who will attend your wedding, and how many people can sit at each table.
Without those two pieces of information, it will be hard for you to create a seating chart. However, your venue should be able to help you figure out how many people can sit at each table. And, even if you don’t have all of your RSVP’s back yet, you probably have a pretty good idea of who will come to your wedding.
There are plenty of different methods to group guests together, but the two main ones are with an Excel spreadsheet or on a poster board with sticky notes. There are also some applications and websites like this one, and this, that you can use, but I like the first two methods the most.
EXCEL SPREADSHEET
If you’d like to create your seating chart on Excel, you’re my kind of person.
To do this, write each guest’s name into a separate Excel cell. Then, copy and paste, or sort all the names together based on the table they should share with each other. See if you can match everyone up into little groups that know each other, or have some commonalities.
POSTERBOARD WITH STICKY NOTES
This is an old school way of creating a seating chart grouping, but still effective.
Write each guest’s name on a sticky note, to start. From there, group guests together right on the poster board by moving the sticky notes around. This should be a pretty easy way to visualize how everyone fits. If you want to get fancy with it, you can even use different colored sticky notes to show different sides of the family, or people your spouse wants to invite.
HOW TO GROUP PEOPLE AT TABLES
Here is a little more guidance on how you can group people, if it’s not totally clear. I have some steps laid out that should help:
- Determine if you will have a sweetheart table, or head table. If you are having a sweetheart table, just you and your new spouse will be at your own table. A head table will include your wedding party, and perhaps their partners. Assign people to those tables accordingly.
- Group family members together, based on different sides of your family, and your spouse’s family. If some families don’t have a lot of guests at the wedding, consider combining these types of tables together.
- Put all your high school or college friends together.
- Have a table for colleagues and work friends.
- Create a group for friends who you’ve met at a gym, church, or hobby.
- Sit people who have all traveled from the same location together, even if they may not know each other yet.
- Have a kid’s table, for kids who are age 7 or older. Keep in mind that kids younger than that should probably sit with their parents.
Each wedding and grouping of tables will be slightly different, but you may be able to see some clear tables forming just by going through guests this way. There might be some people who don’t fit any of these molds, so consider sitting them with friendly guests you’ll think they will get along with.
In order to firm up your groupings, look at them a little closer. Do you think everyone at each table will get along? Are kids seated close to their parents, even if they are at a kid’s table? Have your partner also take a look at the groupings to see if they catch anything you’re missing.
WHERE EACH GROUP’S TABLES SHOULD BE
When you have your guests grouped together, you can start laying out where everyone will actually sit during your wedding. To do this, you’ll need an idea of how the tables will be laid out.
You can do this in a few ways, but I’ll tell you what I recommend. Most people will agree that the “best” tables are the ones that are closest to the newlyweds. So, put your families, wedding party, and anyone who traveled a long way to be there by you. From there, you make your own calls as to who is at which table location.
To add a little more into this, consider the following items:
- Some guests may be better near an exit, especially if they are smokers.
- Older guests or those who have difficulty walking would be better sat near the bathrooms.
- Anyone with hearing sensitivities may be bothered if they are close to a band or large speaker.
- Guests who are likely to drink a lot may appreciate being placed closer to the bar area.
As you can see, different guests may have different needs. So, when you create your table layout, and your groupings, put a little thoughtfulness and common sense into it.
ADDITIONAL SEATING CHART TIPS
Now that you have the lowdown on seating charts, let me remind you of a few things.
First, where people sit for a few hours isn’t a big deal. So don’t stress too much about it. Your guests will probably be just fine sitting with strangers, if they need to. Meals at weddings often have interruptions and breaks. So, don’t worry too much about where everyone is seated and how they will feel about it. They will be just fine.
Second, if you want to keep things simple, just assign guests to a table and not to individual seats. They can figure out who is sitting where on their own. If you’d like to put a little more effort into it, and think some guests will have a strong preference to sit next to certain people, go ahead and create an actual seating plan. But it’s not required, unless your venue or caterer needs it.
Third, though you can play around with your seating groupings and table plan before you receive RSVP’s, it’s best not to actually create the seating chart until you know who is definitely coming to your wedding. So, set your RSVP date a little early if you feel you need extra time. Usually people can commit to attending a wedding 6-8 weeks beforehand, especially if they are traveling. So consider that deadline when you send out your invitations.
HOW TO MAKE YOUR SEATING CHART
Okay, so the actual seating chart.
You can be super creative with this, or keep it as simple as possible. Pinterest and Etsy are great places to find tons of ideas. Seating charts can be made out of frames, mirrors, posters, or even free downloads with custom printing. They are all about aesthetic and functionality. Which means, you want them to look good and match your wedding, but also tell guests where they are sitting.
So, when you create your seating chart, please keep the fact that guests should be able to find their name and table easily on it. From there, you can do what works for you.
THE USE OF NAME CARDS
Name cards kind of go hand in hand with seating charts, but aren’t always needed.
Name cards can tell your guests where to sit at a table, or indicate to a caterer a meal choice. For example, you may have three options for dinner at your wedding. Each guest may have a different colored name card, based on their menu choice. So, typically a name card will have each guest’s name on it, but it may also actually say what they chose for dinner.
To keep name cards easy, you can group couples together on the same card. You can also print them off at home. I was able to buy blank name cards at a local craft store, and then print guest’s names on clear labels to put on them. It was so easy, and worked out great. We had assigned seating, so our seating chart told guests which table was theirs, and the name cards at each table told them where they were seated.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
Friends, hopefully this helped you determine how you will actually create your seating chart. How it looks it up to you, but it should be functional so your guests can find their table. And tables should have some thought put into them. However, don’t stress too much about it because your guests will only be there for short time. Happy wedding planning!
More From Hummingbird Wedding Advice:
Wedding Rehearsal & Rehearsal Dinner Basics
How To Include Your Dog At Your Wedding (The Right Way)
14 Rules Wedding Guests Should Follow
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