Seating Charts are HARD!

We had 68 guests, and no seating chart! It worked out great! =)

I've been playing around with it for giggles even though I'm a ways out yet... UGH... This would be easy, if not for one person.... I would otherwise have no qualms about putting anybody anywhere. Except this one person.

I don't know if this helps at all but this is what we did at our 4 daughters' weddings.

(For what it is worth, we hosted and paid for the wedding according to their vision, RSVPs came to us and we did the seating chart).

There were 3 sets of parents involved at each wedding. Each set of parents hosted whomever they wanted at their table.

I did the chart for our side of the family

The kids did their friends

I asked the groom if he wanted to figure out his family or have his mom/dad do it. They all asked their moms to figure out what worked best in the family dynamics.

It worked like a charm and wasn't hard at all. No one was territorial about it and we have no problem with having 5 or 6 at a table if they are the magic fit. We never ever had a table where someone was the odd couple out and wasn't friends with everyone else at the table.

I hope something in there helps.

Nothing less than a NIGHTMARE! Just when we think we are done, someone calls and don't want to sit next to.... I just want to say GROW UP!!!

We did it on the computer, for ease of cutting and pasting, and like Jeleebenz, broke it into smaller sections. We had either 26 or 27 tables (225 guests). We had a sweetheart table and there were a table each for male and female members of the bridal party and guests, plus a table each for east set of parents (my sister and his brother sat there, even though they were in the bridal party). One table for the groom's cousins, one table for the groom's aunts and uncles, one table for my Dad's relatives, and so on. I knew where to put our friends and my MIL and mother told me how to group their friends. Then we took the template the venue gave us, of the ballroom, and assigned the groups table numbers. We grouped our friends together, and near the dance floor, since we knew they would do the most dancing. We had to keep a few people who aren't fans of each other a few tables apart.

All of these comments are making me worried about doing the seating chart and mine is still far away! I think what worries me most are the parents tables. I really don't want to offend anyone. After discussing it with the venue, I think we're going to have 10 people per table. The problem is that my parents have been divorced for 20 years, so they'll need separate tables and FH's parents have been divorced for about 19 years. His father has since passed, but we're still inviting his entire family since everyone is still close. We'll essentially need 4 parents tables and we have to be very strategic about who we sit at each one. It's already stressing me out because each of our parents comes from a family with multiple children, so we have to choose which siblings/guests of the parents can "fit" and which can't. Ugh. I need to step away from this conversation before I freak out needlessly.

We didn't really mind ours. We did have one person freak out when she somehow heard through her niece that her dad would be at a table adjacent to hers. She asked what would happen if drama started between them. FH explained to her in the simplest of terms that if at nearly 60 she couldn't adult through dinner because another guest was at a different table too close to hers, security would show her ass to the door. All of a sudden she stopped her bitching.

I spent a couple weeks freaking out about our seating chart and kept re doing. When I finally got into IDGAF mode it was so much easier. Nobody complained about where they were seated and if people wanted to move around they did. Its much easier if you don't over think it.

That sounds like a great idea, but I could literally mesh all the friends and family together, except that I can't sit my mom with my step-mom, step-sister, grandmother, aunt, uncle, and two of my sisters (her own daughters). I'm thinking about no seating chart.... but Idk..

We made the seating charts while writing our guestlists. We have 55 people but 4 different groups - 2 of which absolutely hate each other and need to be on opposite ends of the room. Them being on opposite ends is really the only thing we will make happen.

We (really I) have a very low tolerance for nonsense so we've (mainly I) made it pretty clear already that I've got no problem with certain people not being there. So everybody needs to get along and put up with their seats for the one day/night that is ours or just not come. If we weren't doing plated dinners I wouldn't do seating charts and let people sit wherever. They're ideally going to be spending most of the time on the dance floor anyways.

p.s. I LOVE and highly recommend WW's seating chart tool.

My fiance and I have been engaged since December 24 2015, we have already started the guest list, and were talking about who to put with who. It is actually fun because we have decided to intertwine the familes!

This was a difficult part. I found it easy when I put sticky notes with everyone's name on it. It made it easy to picture it and move things around.