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How to Make a Wedding Seating Chart

Plan who sits where at your wedding reception: set up the tables, seat every guest, count meals for the caterer and print a chart with a Find your seat list.

  • How-to
  • Seating Cat
Made for this: Seating Cat

The guest list is done, the RSVPs are in, and now someone has to decide who sits where. A seating chart turns a list of names into tables, and gives the venue, the caterer and your guests one page to work from. This guide covers what a wedding seating chart needs, then how to build one and print it with Seating Cat, our seating chart planner for iPhone and iPad.

What goes on a wedding seating chart

  • Every table, by name or number. "Table 1" works. So do "Head table", "Garden" or "Lisbon".
  • Who sits at each table, and in which seat. Seat numbers help whoever sets out the place cards.
  • Meal choices or groups. The caterer needs to know how many vegetarian or children's meals go to the room, and which table they go to.
  • An A to Z list of guests. At the door, people look for their own name, not for a table. An alphabetical list with each guest's table gets them seated faster than a table plan.

Build the chart in Seating Cat

  1. Name the event. Tap the event name at the top of the screen (it starts as "My event") and choose Rename.
  2. Add your tables. Tap Round table or Long table under Add your first table, then use the + button at the top for more: Round table, 8 seats or Long table, 10 seats. Each new table is called "Table 1", "Table 2" and so on.
  3. Set each table up. Tap the ⋯ button on a table to Rename it, or to use One seat fewer and One seat more until it matches the venue's plan. A table can have from 1 to 40 seats. Round tables show their seats around the rim; long tables show them along both sides, with an odd seat at the far end. A long table works as a head table.
  4. Add your guests. Type a name into Add a guest and tap Next on the keyboard; the box stays ready for the next name. To bring in a whole list at once, tap Add guests, then Paste a list, and paste one guest per line.
  5. Add meals or groups. In the paste box, put a comma and a tag after a name, like "Ana Silva, Vegetarian". The sheet shows what it's about to add, like "12 guests, 2 tags: Vegetarian, Kids", before you tap Add 12. You can also tag a guest later (see below).
  6. Seat everyone. Guests without a seat wait under Not seated yet. Drag a name onto a seat, or tap the name and then tap a seat. Each seat shows the guest's initials, in their tag's colour if they have one, and each table shows how full it is, like "6 of 8".

The panel at the top keeps score: how many guests are seated out of the total, how many tables and seats you have, and the count for each tag. When the last guest is placed, Not seated yet changes to Everyone has a seat.

Moving people around

Seating charts change right up to the day. In Seating Cat, a change never loses anyone:

  • Drop a guest on a taken seat and the two swap places. If the newcomer came from Not seated yet, that's where the other guest goes.
  • Tap a seated guest to pick them up. A bar at the bottom says Tap a seat for their name; tap another seat to move them, Unseat to send them back to Not seated yet, or Done to leave them where they are.
  • Delete a table from its ⋯ menu, and its guests go back to Not seated yet. Nobody is deleted with it. Taking seats away with One seat fewer only unseats the guests in the seats that went away.

To fix a name or change a meal, tap the guest and then Edit. Type a new tag under Meal or group, or pick one you've already used. Remove guest takes someone off the list; if they had a seat, it's freed.

Every change is saved on your device as you make it.

Tap Print at the top left, then Print chart, or Share chart PDF to send it to the venue, a planner or a print shop. The chart has:

  • the event name, how many guests are seated and how many tables there are;
  • a For the caterer line with the count for each meal or group, like "Kids 3 Vegetarian 4";
  • every table with each guest's seat number, name and tag, in two columns, with no table split across pages;
  • a Find your seat list: every guest A to Z with their table and seat, like "Table 2, seat 3". Anyone you haven't seated yet is on it too, marked "Not seated yet", so nobody is missing at the door.

The PDF is Letter size in the US and Canada and A4 in most other places, set by your device's region. A large wedding carries on over as many pages as it needs.

From the same Print menu you can print a place card for every guest, six to a sheet, each with the name of their table under their own.

What it costs

Seating Cat is free for one event, with no limit on guests or tables: drag and tap seating, tags and the caterer's counts, the chart, and plain place cards to print or share as a PDF, with no watermark. There's no account and no ads. Seating Cat Pro is an optional one-time purchase that adds more events (say, the rehearsal dinner and the brunch, each with its own guests and tables), importing a guest list from a CSV file, and the Gilded, Garden and Modern place-card themes. More on the Seating Cat page.

Quick answers

Can I import my guest list from a spreadsheet?
Pasting a list is free: copy the names column, one guest per line, and paste it under Add guests › Paste a list. Importing a CSV file directly, with names and meals or groups, is part of Seating Cat Pro.

How do I show meal choices on the seating chart?
Give each guest a tag such as "Vegetarian" or "Fish". The chart prints the tag next to the guest's name and puts the totals on the For the caterer line.

What happens to guests if I delete a table?
They go back to Not seated yet. If anyone is seated at the table, Seating Cat asks first and tells you how many guests will go back.

Where is my seating chart kept?
In the app's own words: "Your seating is kept on your phone and in your own backups, and leaves only when you print or share it."

Try Seating Cat

Try Seating Cat: free, no watermark, no sign-up → iyio.com/apps/seating-cat