by Lynne Marie

Created on: January 05, 2011   Last Updated: January 06, 2011

In a perfect world, every person whom attends your wedding reception would get along perfectly, and making your seating chart would be a breeze.  Realistically, this is not the case.  The following tips are sure to make your task much less frustrating, and eliminate any unwanted hassles.

Start your planning early!  As soon as you have selected your venue, map it out on a piece of poster board.  Permanently draw in fixed areas such as a dance floor, bar, buffet tables, and DJ booth.  Next, you will want to draw in your wedding party table(s) and appropriate number of chairs.  If your group (including bride and groom) consists of twelve people, you will want to draw in twelve circles representing the chairs.  Inside each circle, write the full name of the person whom will be using it.  Using names instead of numbers will be helpful in case there is a need to swap someones seat.

Talk with your venue's director about capacity, table shapes and sizes, and number of chairs available to use.  Once you have collected that information, you can place your tables on your diagram.  It is best to cut out appropriate shaped pieces of paper, and affix them using poster putty, or something removable.  You may want to rearrange the tables in the future, and if you pencil them in, you will be using a lot of erasers!

Chairs (round paper cut outs) should also be added to the diagram in a fashion in which they can easily be removed or rearranged.  Write each guests name on a "chair".  As a rough draft, start placing the guests' chairs around the tables.  You might rearrange them a hundred or more times at first, but that's okay!  Once you feel content with where everyone is seated, place your temporary fixative to each "chair" and adhere it to the poster board.

Once you have your diagram completed, show it to the director of your venue to verify that the set up you have created is practical.  Perhaps you have placed a table in an area that blocks an exit.  Even worse, maybe you have added more tables than the venue can accommodate.  This is not a problem that you want to attempt to solve the day before your reception, so completing this step early is imperative.

Better safe than sorry.  Not everyone will RSVP to your event, but will show up anyway.  Adding enough tables to accomodate ten to fifteen guests more

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