Wedding Reception Forum

RSVP/Seating chart

My wedding is on October 13 and we are starting to get our RSVP's back. I am wondering what are some idea for keeping track of all of the RSVP (yes & no). 

Also-- on top of that my inlays are Albanian- and do not really use RSVP. This should make my seating near impossible!! But I am looking for some tips at least for my seating. I don't even know where to begin!!! PLEASE HELP!

Re: RSVP/Seating chart

  • Also--- I have a guest list of about 350..so probably closer to 300
  • Unfortunately, anyone who does not RSVP must be called and asked for their response, and if they won't give you one, tell them that you are assuming that they are not attending and plan accordingly.
  • awilday1 said:
    Also--- I have a guest list of about 350..so probably closer to 300
    How did you keep track of all the people you invited and their addresses in the first place?

    I made a huge spreadsheet. Name, #adults,#kids, Mailing address, city, state, zip, RSVP Yes, RSVP No, Gift Log, Thank you Sent?
  • Believe me I have made this very clear to my inlaws and soon to be hubby! They act like it is a cultural thing--when really I see it as straight rude! I told him I am ABSOLUTELY not having 20 empty tables for these people!!! 
    But unfortunately the way they are--people will just show up..and I will be the one stressing the day of when we dont have tables/food and what not!

  • I made an excel spread sheet..do you think thats best for replies?? 

    What about seating -- on top of that the place is a weird shape so I wont be able to split up my side and his side...one side of the dance floor fits up to 9 tables and the other side fits the rest..STRESSFUL!!
  • LDubHawksFanLDubHawksFan member
    First Anniversary First Answer 5 Love Its Name Dropper
    edited August 2013
    Yes add some columns to your spreadsheet. You can have a yes or no, number of each and meal type. That is what we did and it worked great! Keep all your cards for backup though. We were off by one number and I had entered something wrong so we went back to the originals to check.
    I would recommend assigned tables for that size. It's really not hard at all. I probably spent 30 mins doing mine twice for 100 ppl, so yours will maybe be 90 mins?? To make it easy to move ppl around I bought a big poster board and drew several circles on it, then wrote the names on slim post it notes (left over from tabbing books in college). I could then start grouping people at tables. Mom' family at 1, dads family 2, all of the siblings with kids 3, college friends 4, etc. when it came around a week before and my BM backed out (new mommy) and our wp table would have been slim, I was able to switch some of the guests around really easily. It worked well for me. Also check with your venue on recommended limits for your table sizes. We had 60" or 72" to choose from, so anywhere from 8-12 people , which really helped. Keep in mind that you don't have to have exactly 8 people at each table. If you have an odd amount, don't stick a random single at a table of people they don't know for the sake of even numbers. No one will notice if tables have different numbers. I feel like that is one reason brides get so darn overwhelmed with the dreaded seating chart! Ha

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  • Thanks so much!! very helpful!!! If my BM did that I may hang them hahaha
  • Ha while I was sad she wasn't there, I was so happy for her. She kept saying all through the pregnancy she would come (her son was due 3 wks before) but I knew in my heart she probably wouldn't. But all of my bms were from back home 2000 miles away, so this wasn't a simple drive with an infant. I know certain things seem like they would be the end of the world or the most important thing for your wedding, but most are small stuff. You will still marry your love!

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  • SP29SP29 member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    Agreed- use a spreadsheet to track your RSVPs: number of seats allotted, response received (where you would include the number who responded yes, or 0 for no), meal choice.

    Call these family members and tell them you need a head count for the caterer, or there will be no food for them. As harsh as it sounds, it won't be your fault if they show up with no place to sit or meal to it. 

    Theknot here has a seating chart option. 
  • You're seriously getting stressed out over nothing at this point.  Simply add a few columns to your spreadsheet.  I added one for yes/no (# coming), the names of who was coming in case only 1 of 2 individuals were coming I'd know who, and then a column for the gift given and then yes or no if I sent a thank you yet.

    Don't bother thinking about the seating chart until after all your RSVPs are in.

  • I used the rsvp/guest list option on TK. Then for seating what I did was get poster board and draw a bunch of circles on it. Then I got the post-it tabs that you can write on & wrote a tab for each person that was coming and put it off to the side. Certain guests I knew would be placed together so I went ahead and i did that right away. The rest I did with the help of my MIL since mosts of guests were his side of family. Once we knew who would be sitting with who, we assigned table numbers. The tabs worked great because it was easy to move people around & see was with who. I printed out final list & gave it to reception hall so they would know who went where in case there were any issues (guests who didn't RSVP).

  • I have a chart with columns like many of the PPs.   I plan to use notecards and just make piles on the floor, moving them and then keeping the "tables" clipped together...it worked well for my first wedding (wedding was great, marriage not so much....this time BOTH are gonna be lovely!). 

    Also, I asked my mom to pick her table.  You might see if your parents and FIs want to do that...

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