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Step By Step Wedding Seating Chart Guide
BlogWhen you are creating the floorplan, it is a good idea to start with a few extra tables.
If you have 100 guests and believe that you will need 10 tables, start with a floorplan that has 12 or 13 tables. Even though a 60” round can hold up to 10 guests, you might find that you have a group of nine cousins that need to sit together or you have eight work friends who should sit by themselves. Having the extra tables will give you the flexibility to seat your guests in the best way possible. Also worth noting — brides like to mix table sizes!
You might have a total of 10 tables, but eight will be 60-inch rounds, and two will be 72-inch rounds because you need to have a few larger groups. Again, your options will need to come from the banquet manager at the venue as they will know what will work best in their space and the floorplan has to reflect the needs of the wait staff moving between the tables to serve and clear properly.
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FAQs
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Prismm’s collaborative floorplan design and seating chart tools help event professionals and their clients to save time and reduce stress when planning a wedding seating chart! With so many factors to consider like guest dynamics, venue layout, and more recently, social distancing, we want to help make the process as easy as possible.
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Drafting your guest list should be one of the first things you do. Make sure you put it together in an organized fashion. Group your guests as you list them – college friends, family, colleagues, special needs guests – these categories will help you later on when it is time to assign your guests to their tables.
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Prismm’s guest list builder allows you to easily enter all guest information including notes, RSVP’s, and important information with filtering options. The guest list links directly to the seating chart for easy arranging within the wedding floorplan.
While traditional table groupings may involve categories such as family, colleagues, college friends, and family friends, another important category is “specific needs.” Using the label of “specific needs” is important to make note of those guests who may not be able to walk far into a room, may need close access to a bathroom, or have hearing issues that affect how far away/how close you need to seat them in relation to the band.
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The wedding floorplan layout should be created once the wedding couple has a pretty good idea of guest count which is usually three to four weeks before the wedding. While it can be done earlier, there will most likely be last-minute changes that can substantially throw off the entire seating plan.
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The bride and groom may wish to sit with the bridal party – this may require a special table that can be created using rectangles. Tell your banquet manager that you would like to create a head table that will seat 17 guests and see what they suggest. Or the bride and groom may wish to sit by themselves at what is called a “Sweetheart Table”, or the bride and groom can sit at a family table.
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Keep guests’ interests in mind when putting people together. For example, your Aunt Sarah loves to go skiing and your friend John just got back from a trip. You can put them at the same table so they have the chance to connect. If you have friends from college attending, seat them together to reunite. If you put some thought into matchmaking your guests’ interests, you’ll see a definite payoff and create a friendly atmosphere. Using Prismm, you can clearly assign each guest to their seat in your digital floorplan layout.