The Dreaded Seating Process...

jchristel · August 2010

Does anyone have any suggestions on doing the seating? I have *most* of the rsvps in and wanted to get started. I found a page on wedding wire that seems good so far, but wanted to see if any of you girls came up with or used something that made it easier?

Reilly626 · August 2010

I bought the "I Do" Wedding Software, its been a God-send!! It does everything!

http://www.elmsoftware.com/

allforyou · August 2010

Have you ever seen the show Friends? There is an episode were Monica is doing her seating chart and everyone is a little pin and can easily be moved around. I did something like that. I got a long piece of styrofoam then used toothpicks (each toothpick had a piece of post-it with the person's name on it). It did not take long to make, plus I really think it made seating easier. It was nice to have a visual and it was so easy to just move people around.

Danes983 · August 2010

Oh GOD everything has to be such a process doesnt it?!!! I figure I am going to have everyone do their list (me, mom, fi, his mom) then the left overs I will do. Hopefully its as easy as I want it to be.

jchristel · August 2010

Danes, you're lucky, I don't expect that level of help.

I don't know if I feel like buying software this late in the game, I was considering posterboard and post its or maybe I'll just use the wedding wire software, I already have everyone in there and made a mock up of the room. It's great because you can click and drag the people and move them around, but it doesn't distinguish a yes response from a no (even though I have updated their status) so it's kind of muddled.

Heather822 · August 2010

I just made 20 copies or so of the seating plan the venue gave us... and I dusted off the old #2 pencils and make drafts... then revise, and revise, and revise....

Danes983 · August 2010

Help!? What do you mean? I figured that they would want people where they want them. If they dont want to help thats fine. I will have Aunt Sally sit with punk rocker nose pierced Billy.

jennhiggins · August 2010

This is going to sound dorky,but I used Excel. I made outlined boxes on the worksheet with as many lines as the number of people I could fit at a table and enough boxes to equal the number of tables we were allowed. Then I copied my guest list onto another column and just cut and pasted names into my "tables." That way I didn't have to worry about erasing names on paper and I could quickly and easily move people around. It took me about 45 minutes doing it this way.

mariaNryan · August 2010

lol Danes i love that!!!! Its true though if they want people by where they want them then they need to help

uppereastgirl · August 2010

We used Excel (for guest list tracking and making the seating arrangements). We sorted our full list to pull out just the yesses, made lists of what the table "categories" would be (like my family, my parents' friends, John's work friends, etc.) and moved names into lists under those categories. We had tables of 8-12, so just making those categories sorted many groups into tables with around the right numbers. Then we took the stragglers and figured out who would fit together. And then we drew up a diagram of how we thought the tables would be, numbered them logically, and then assigned table numbers to each group of people.

We were lucky I guess -- I think it was much much harder to figure out how to arrange the tables themselves (the room was very flexible) than to figure out who sits with whom and what group sits near what other group. Seat assignments really weren't that bad for us.

eleven29 · August 2010

I also plan on using Excel and doing pretty much exactly what Victoria did. But then again, everything for our wedding is tracked in Excel, so it just seemed like the most logical thing to do. I always prefer to do things on the computer rather than on paper.

ffbride_0813 · August 2010

I did it like uppereast did. I seperate everyone into catagories in excel. Most tables ended up making themselves that way. My parents table had 21 people at it so I then broke that catagory down smaller and did a table of 11 and one of 12.

I also had a problem just assigning the groups to actual table locations in the hall. Moms table cant be by dads table, grandparents cant be by the speakers, grandma doesnt like dad either, stepdads friends need to be by the bar. It was a mess.

kwilkinson14 · August 2010

I am most likely going to use excel as PPs have stated. The guest list is being tracked that way so it will be easy to copy and paste info. This is one thing I am not looking forward to in the planning process.

mbcdefg · August 2010

I did pretty much what UpperEast did, except on paper (I hate Excel, lol). My family, MH's family, work friends, college friends, my personal friends, his personal friends, etc.

Our tables sat up to 10, so a lot of tables just worked themselves out naturally that way. The only one where we had to piece two groups together was an overflow of his friends and our college friends, but one guy fit into both those categories and we seated those two tables right next to each other, so it worked out well.

Denise91980 · August 2010

I am sooooo dreading this....I already have my mom and FMIL in my ear about who they want to sit with, and who can't be near who....oh...and such and such will not sit at a kids table, so you better sit them with their parents. AHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Laurms15 · August 2010

I created 2 excel docs one w/ all the names alphabetically and one with each table being a seperate formula so each time I moved names (and # of ppl) from the first document and pasted them into the second document the #s would reconcile so I didn't loose anyone in the process.

Just Jen · August 2010

Excel

gibribuz · August 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_new-jersey_dreaded-seating-process?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:90Discussion:11f9a971-75a4-4cff-a695-9f63391a077ePost:2f4256f2-ab18-4cdc-bf6d-c80495903bed">Re: The Dreaded Seating Process...</a>:
[QUOTE]Have you ever seen the show Friends? There is an episode were Monica is doing her seating chart and everyone is a little pin and can easily be moved around. I did something like that. I got a long piece of styrofoam then used toothpicks (each toothpick had a piece of post-it with the person's name on it).
Posted by allforyou[/QUOTE]
I plan on doing something like this.

sgdc2011 · August 2010

Postits on Paper Plates! Each plate is a table and each person is a posit! once they send in their RSVP yes you write their name on a post it! easy to move around

demarcosjd · August 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_new-jersey_dreaded-seating-process?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:90Discussion:11f9a971-75a4-4cff-a695-9f63391a077ePost:33f2b563-2d0e-4f9d-95b1-ccd4740a0b45">Re: The Dreaded Seating Process...</a>:
[QUOTE]I just made 20 copies or so of the seating plan the venue gave us... and I dusted off the old #2 pencils and make drafts... then revise, and revise, and revise....
Posted by Heather822[/QUOTE]

I did the same thing. It was easier than I thought it would be.

cvl105 · August 2010

I used sticky note tabs and paper plates. It worked great for me and wasn't a stressful process at all.

smw42 · August 2010

I plan on using Excel. FI already has created a table in his head of "people he doesn't like" aka his great aunt, a coworker, and a neighbor that were all on FMIL's list.

jchristel · August 2010

Excel it is- I had everything in Excel already, so I categorized like several of you suggested. When it comes to all of the "friend" tables, I think I'll use post its to look at the combinations.

Thanks so much everyone!

**little rant. Almost everyone my mother made me invite (that I didn't want to) RSVP'd no. So glad I cut my list to accommodate her.

felicia220 · August 2010

Index cards and #2 pencil. I did all the tables I knew would be easy first and then went from there.

chrissy31805 · August 2010

we used the response cards. we separated into 3 piles - yes on my side, yes on his side, and no's. then we took the response cards and piled them together into their tables. when a table was done, we put a post it on it and put how many were at that table

we did not have the seating plan yet. when we got the seating plan, we just wrote down what number table they would be on the post it. it was fairly easy and took about 20 mintues to do

NJMom050911 · August 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_new-jersey_dreaded-seating-process?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:90Discussion:11f9a971-75a4-4cff-a695-9f63391a077ePost:ffe29f22-6818-4cf9-9666-f9246fbe84ca">Re: The Dreaded Seating Process...</a>:
[QUOTE]Postits on Paper Plates! Each plate is a table and each person is a posit! once they send in their RSVP yes you write their name on a post it! easy to move around :)
Posted by sgdc2011[/QUOTE]
This is what I did, makes moving people around a breeze.

maranguren · August 2010

Has anyone thought of putting the 2 familys together in tables as to make them mingle? or is that asking to much of your families

jchristel · August 2010

I am against forced mingling.

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