Wedding Seating Chart Maker

Wedding Seating Chart Maker — how to use it

What it does

This free wedding seating chart maker turns a messy guest spreadsheet into a clean, venue-ready display sign — entirely in your browser, with no account to start and no wedding-platform lock-in. You add tables with seat capacities, paste your guest list, and drag each guest onto a table. The tool keeps a live seat count for every table, loudly flags over-capacity tables and the running unassigned count, and guarantees no guest is ever double-booked. When you are done, it exports a printable display seating chart (alphabetical by last name, the planner standard) and an alphabetical “find your seat” lookup list.

How to use it

1. Type your chart heading (e.g. “Emma & Liam · Find Your Seat”).
2. Paste your guest list — one name per line, or Name,PartySize to seat a couple or family together — then click Add pasted list to pool. Or add guests one at a time.
3. Click + Add table for each reception table, rename it (e.g. “Napa” or keep “Table 1”), and set its seat capacity (default 8).
4. Drag each guest from the Unassigned pool onto a table. The table’s seat count updates live and turns red with a “+N over” badge if you exceed capacity.
5. Watch the status banner — it only turns green when everyone is seated and no table is over capacity. Then Print chart or export the find-your-seat CSV and the full assignments CSV.

Worked example

A couple has 96 guests across family entries and singles. They paste the list — including The Smith Family,4 and Lopez, Maria — and click Add pasted list to pool; the head count reads 96 seats (the Smith line counts as 4, not 1). They add 12 tables at the default capacity of 8, giving a total of 96 seats — spare seats = 0. As they drag guests on, one 60-inch table reaches 9 and shows a red “+1 over” badge, so they move one guest to a lighter table. When the last guest leaves the pool, the banner turns green: “96 of 96 guests seated · 0 unassigned · 0 tables over capacity.” They keep the default alphabetical-by-last-name layout, print the chart for the entrance, and download the find-your-seat CSV for the planner.

How the seat math works

• Seats used for a table is the sum of the party sizes of the guests on it — so a “family of 6” counts as 6 seats, not one name. Seats remaining = capacity − seats used, and can go negative (over capacity).
• Total guests (head count) = the sum of every guest’s party size, assigned or not. Spare seats = total capacity − total guests; if negative, you are short that many seats and need to add a table.
• Fill % = seats used ÷ capacity, rounded to a whole percent. A table with no capacity set shows “—” and is flagged, never divided by zero.
• Double-booking is structurally impossible: each guest has exactly one location, and assigning to a new table removes them from the old one.
• Alphabetical sort key is the last name — text after a comma when present (“Lopez, Maria”), otherwise the final word (“Emma Lopez”). A single-word name like “Cher” uses the whole name as the key. Switch Last-name detection to Manual to type the exact sort surname for each guest — ideal for suffixes (Jr., III), compound surnames (van der Berg, de la Cruz), and mononyms.

Accuracy & disclaimer

Capacity figures are general etiquette guidance — confirm exact seat counts with your venue, rental company, and caterer. The default of 8 per table reflects a 60-inch round at comfortable plated service; the same table technically fits 10 in a squeeze, and a 72-inch round seats 10–12. Actual fit depends on table size, place settings, chargers, centerpieces, and service style (plated and family-style sit lower; buffet and cocktail sit higher). This tool produces a seating chart (a posted sign mapping each guest to a table) and a find-your-seat lookup. It does not draw a scaled venue floor plan with table positions and spacing (planners leave ~5–6 ft between tables for pathways), and it does not assign specific seats within a table — that is what place cards are for. Last-name detection is a heuristic; always spot-check suffixes (Jr., III), compound surnames (van der Berg, de la Cruz), and mononyms before printing. Everything runs entirely in your browser — no guest data leaves your device, no account, no platform lock-in. Nothing is saved server-side, so export or print to keep your work.

Common mistakes this tool helps you avoid

• Double-booking a guest on two tables (the #1 spreadsheet error) — solved by the single-location rule.
• Over-filling a table without noticing — solved by the live seats-remaining count and the “+N over” flag.
• Forgetting plus-ones and families — party size feeds the head count, so a “Smith Family” counts as its real seat need.
• Organizing the posted chart by table number — guests then scan every table to find themselves; the default is alphabetical by last name.
• Finishing with guests still unassigned — the banner shows the unassigned count and only clears at zero.
• Provisioning fewer seats than guests — the spare-seats shortfall warning catches it before the day.
• Splitting a couple across tables — represent them as one party entry so they move and count together.

Frequently asked questions

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