Dreaded seating chart

nordke

I doubt there is an easy, if any, answer to my question, but figured I'd put it out there...any suggestions on how to make a seating chart as easy and painless as possible? Unfortunately I'm willing to bet that the only answer is a lot of hours and hair pulling, but I'm open to suggestions besides that. Thankfully we don't have any can't-seat-this-person-by/with-that-person, but we would still like people sitting together that know one another, etc. And unfortunately no, not having a seating chart is not an option.   I've been working on it for a few hours, and get so close, and then am left with some couples/famlies that can't seem to fit anywhere. I'm having to figure this out for about 230 guests with 24 tables...ahhh!!!

wittyschaffy

I did mine on my bus ride home one afternoon with a few minor changes afterwards - not too painful.  I just had a copy of the guest list and then I made a page on excel with 10 slots in each box for the number of tables and plunked them in.  I know some people do post-its on paper plates too so you can re-arrange.  Once I had someone on the table diagram, I crossed them off the guest list.  It helped me to do it in bunches like all of my friends, all of my family etc so I wasn't jumping all over the list (we had our guest list organized that way too)

kaylas16

We did pretty much what witty said.  We did both methods (because I am crazy) I made a spreadsheet and dropped people in and we also used the post it note method on posterboard. 

It took us a few hours to get it down.  It was like doing a giant puzzle...when you get that last piece in a realize you are done, it's such a relief!

nordke

I actually thought of the paper plate/post-it idea during my restless night of sleep last night! I tried the list/excel idea last night, but that wasn't really getting me anywhere...sounds like I should have a winner once I get my post-its! Thanks!

shan87

I hated this project and wished we said eff it.

MIL did her side, no real problems except she left a lot of tables with 8 when there was room for 10. We didn't want to exceed 24 tables because then they had to put tables on the dance floor and remove them after dinner.

The hardest part was deciding which table to put them on. Each parental set demanded family be sat up front and our friends in the corner. This bugged me, most of our friends are from OOT or Out of State and thought it was rude to say, Hey thanks for flying/driving, you get the back. It took me 3 long nights but we finally reached an agreement.

Then we had crashers and it effed it all up. I didn't hear about it until after of course but it bugged me.

In the end, after dinner ppl will move to where ever the heck they want. Keep families/couples together and don't think to hard about it.

tpender13

I did what Witty did w/a spreadsheet, and it was relatively easy. Granted, we only had about 70 people, but it went well. I had the spreadsheet and cut and pasted guest list names into groups of 8, and just putzed w/it for an hour or two until I had it. Then I looked at a layout of how the tables would be set in the room, and assigned groups to tables.

jentaberson

tip: put older guests farther away from the DJ/ Band, as well as anyone with small children. Put the college friends closer to the DJ/Band.