Why is it so hard to do the seating plan???

Tips - stop worrying. Nobody will care where they sit, and on the day you certainly won't! Believe me, I wouldn't have noticed if half the guests had upped and moved to the other side of the room.

In practical terms, we just tried to make sure everyone had at least someone they knew on the table, kept couples together, mostly kept families together. The numbers were fairly mismatched but it didn't look wrong. We had tables of 7, 8 and 9, one table of 6 with a baby, one table of 10. It worked out absolutely fine.

Is there anything specific you need help sorting?

I added another table to make it work the way i wanted.. i tried to mix both families and putting all the boring ones together and the fun loving beer/wine guzzlers together and it worked fine.. the seating plan was the most stressfull part of the wedding planning for me and ended up doing it one afternoon at work with fresh pair of eyes and got it done- like pandora said it doesnt matter at the end of the day who sits where

It might be a good idea to let someone else look at it for you? When my mum got married last year, she was really struggling to arrange the seating plan so I asked her who knew who and who was travelling together etc and did it for her. I didn't find it difficult as I didn't know half the people so wasn't worried about upsetting anyone!

Don't stress over it! This is how I looked at mine:

Mix family’s up or leave together

Put families with kids together

Put people you did want together on different table/opposite end of the plan etc

Put people who will talk together (I did not want a silent room!)

Moved them around till they fit

I did mine on a spreadsheet that way you can block the amount of people per table with boarders and then copy and paste people around.

We found the table plan the most difficult thing to do for our wedding.

This is how we went about it:

Waited untill we had as near definite numbers as we were going to gert.

Got a big sheet of paper and drew on the top table with the 7 people and our 7 tables.

Then we cut out loads of pieces of paper (you could use post its) and divided people up into family groups there were quite a lot of two's but there were also two groups of 5 that couldn't be split up some 3's etc. We were mindful that we could have no more than 8 on each table and we started moving people around. The easiest thing to do was to match numbers up group of 5 with a group of 3 etc. Then we sat and looked at "group" dynamics person "M" has to sit on a table with no kids as they don't like them, we can't sit this group with that group as two people don't get on. If we sit person "J" there then they won't know anyone.

We sat and moved all the pieces of paper around for ages untill we got something we were happy with and then got it printed

Good Luck as it took us three attempts to get it right and I know it can be really tough! xx

Thank you everyone I have got mum and bridesmaid coming over later, so will get them to look at it with me, as some of you have said it is turning out to be the most stressful part of the planning.

I'm planning on making it as stress free as possible. I had one that was perfect, but then we changed venues and have gone from tables of 8 to tables of 12. We've decided to mix people up as well to make it less stressful and get people talking and mixing rather than sticking to the usual family groups. We're putting people in age groups as much as possible, but obviously keeping couples together and putting singles with at least one other person they know. We were going to have a kiddies table (except for one baby) but my cousin's daughter has been diagnosed with Aspergers so now I'm not sure she'd be happy, in which case we will keep little family groups together too and try and put couples with kids together so the kids still have other people their age there.

Have to say this has been the part I'm expecting to be the most stessful and have resigned myself to this fact!!

This is the one thing I have had sleepless nights about. We have a table of five, all the way up to 8. I am a little stressed about the 5 still but i'm sure all will be alright on the day. The biggest issue we had is that we aren't having a traditional top table and we have family units ranging from two - 5, with some individuals as well

I don't have any words of wisdom, I just sat down and starting putting people together

Try not to stress over it, it's not the most important part of the day, and most people expect to go to a wedding and sit next to people they don't know anyway. It's always good to mix the two families together a little bit if possible but it will all work out fine I'm sure :-)

I used a spreadsheet and it was just trial and error moving people around. Remember the meal is just a fraction of the day, and before and after everyone will be mingling with each other ?

Hey,

Have you had a look at our table planner tool? It can make arranging your seating plan way less stressful! https://www.hitched.co.uk/planner/tableplanner.aspx

Zoe

Hi yes I have been using it, thank you, it just find it hard to use sometimes, as they over lap a lot, and that wqas adding to the stress, so I gave up on that in the end.

This was the one part I was dreading and it actually went very well, we have tables of 6,7,8 and I think we even have a 9.

Really? I've lost count of the number of guests of mine that have "demanded" that they do or don't sit next to a certain person or people. Even the ones who haven't been specific have told me to make sure I get them on a "good" table. ?

I know this isn't probably going to help but your guests will care. I am a sociable person so will happily sit wherever I am put but at one wedding all of my friends were together and I was put on a seperate table with people I knew but not that well. It didn't spoil my day but I don't look back with enjoyment at that wedding.

I did mine by putting people into groups that they would know and then trying to pair them up with others - for example my godparents who are teachers are sitting with my colleagues from school - they don't know each other but they have something in common.My tables range from 7-11's. My venue have no problem as they said 8-12 on tables they don't have to be identical.