Crafting a Wedding: Guest List and Seating Chart

The seating chart can be confusing, time consuming and stressful for many brides (and grooms)! Figuring out who to sit next to who can be challenging. Make it a bit less challenging with my system. It worked well for me.



First of all you want to make a master list of all your guests. I do not have a separate post for this so allow me to take a few minutes to talk about it.

For my master list I used Microsoft Excel with the following columns:
download the template 

• Number: start with one and keep going (didn't think I would need this at first, however it does come in handy...for many reasons).
• Guest name: use the person's full name as you want it to be on the invite. 
• Spouse/Date name: for the spouse, partner or guest. Also make sure you have the person's full name spelled correctly
• Children: the name of any children invited.
• Total number in the party: total from guest, date to children. Select the column and have it total out at the bottom
• Address: even if you have the address written elsewhere or memorized put it here. (Do anything and everything you can to decrease stress...and to make it easy for others to help you).
• Phone: again, even if it's in your phone or memorized put it down. This makes it so that you can pass the list onto someone else to make calls about RSVP cards or pass it along to your bridal party planner for an easy invite list.
• Email: also important for not only you but for others to help you out easily. P.S. make sure the email address is up to date.
• Number accepted: I started this column out just as a yes or no because I figured I had the numbers in the other column, bad move. record the number when the RSVPs come in. Don't wait, you may misplace a few from all the craziness.
• Dish options: this obviously only applies if you are having a plated dinner. If you are you must do this! Also to be recorded as the RSVPs come in. I color coded guest 1 red and guest 2 blue so that I could simply put a number in the applicable column so I could total it out at the bottom. 
• Table assignment: whether you are using numbers or names for you table once you do figure out where you are going to put them record it here. 
• Gift received: more important than you realize until the 30th gift.
• Thank you note sent: use this as a check box or write the date to make sure you keep to a goal. 

Sorry its blurry but you get the idea

Now, the dreaded seating chart. 

The above excel spreadsheet may seem a bit overwhelming, however to me the alternative was way more overwhelming. 

I took this master list and wrote everyone's name on a color coded post-it based on what they ate (mostly because I did not have enough of one color and no other method made sense). 

I then was able to organize each post-it into tables. I got a poster from the Dollar Tree and simply drew circles for circular tables. The post-it allows you to place and move people as need be. 

Hope this is helpful. I cannot for the life of me figure out if I can put documents on the blog. If and when I figure it out I will try and include the spreadsheet.