How to make a seating chart
By the SitBliss team · Updated · 6 min read
The short version
- Finish the guest list first.
- Group guests into parties: everyone who arrives together.
- Write down the few must-nots and must-haves.
- Count your tables and seats from the venue’s floor plan.
- Seat the hardest tables first.
- Fill the rest by group.
- Check every table, then make the place cards.
1. Finish the guest list first
Seat from your final yes list, plus the maybes you expect to come. Every change after you start moves more than one person, so the later you begin, the less you redo.
2. Group guests into parties
Couples, families with children, a guest and their plus-one: anyone who arrives together sits together. A list of 150 names usually becomes 60 or 70 parties, and parties are far easier to place than people.
3. Write down the must-nots and must-haves
Divorced parents, an old feud, a grandparent who should be near the dance floor, a guest who needs to be close to the exit. Keep the list short: these are the only rules that truly matter, and everything else is a preference.
4. Count your tables and seats
Ask the venue for its floor plan and the size of its tables. Plan for two or three spare seats, for the guest who appears at the last minute.
| Table | Comfortable | Snug |
|---|---|---|
| 48-inch round | 6 | 8 |
| 60-inch round | 8 | 10 |
| 72-inch round | 10 | 12 |
| 6-foot rectangle | 6 | 8 |
5. Seat the hardest tables first
The head table, the closest family, and every table touched by a must-not. Once those are fixed, the rest of the room has far fewer ways to go wrong.
6. Fill the rest by group
Friends from school, colleagues, neighbours. Keep each group at one table when it fits; when a group must split, split it in halves people will understand, not one lonely seat.
7. Check every table, then make the place cards
Walk each table and ask two questions: does everyone know at least one person, and is anyone near someone they shouldn’t be? Then print the place cards and a large chart for the entrance.