The planning end game is on. You’re working with your guest list to arrive at a final headcount, contacting everyone who hasn’t sent in an RSVP, and managing the number of adults and children. Sending the meal count for each menu option to your caterer. Dealing with who should (and shouldn’t) sit next to who at the reception. Drawing up a seating chart. Redoing the chart. Blowing away the eraser dust and redoing it again.
Handling all the last minute to-do items is no easy task, to be sure. Luckily, there are a number of online tools that you can take advantage of to save your time and sanity while juggling all the details, and I cover some of them in my previous post: Finalizing Your Wedding Guest List and Seating Plan.
If you haven’t read it, I encourage you to check it out, as there are some great tips included. In that post, I also introduced the downloadable seating chart builders Perfect Table Plan and Seating Arrangement For Weddings, both of which allow you to go from guest list to a visual seating plan layout with point-and-click ease. And for those who think their old-school pencil & paper will serve them as well or better, I say to each his or her own. But you just don’t realize how much of a convenience these tools offer until you try them.
Using Perfect Table Plan to set seating preferences, including guests you absolutely don't want seated together and those you do. An auto-seating wizard takes it from there.
Seating Arrangement for Weddings lets you create seating charts and print reports for free
Another great tool available is Top Table Planner, an easy to use drag-and-drop seating layout designer. This one has the added bonus of being completely online, so there’s no software to download (one disadvantage of Seating Arrangement For Weddings is that it doesn’t run on a Mac). Its intuitive interface allows you to select and arrange various table types, and assign guests to specific seating with ease.
Add and edit your guest lists
Design your layout and assign guest seating
Top Table Planner lets you set up various table types and sizes, indicate meal choices and RSVPs, add other reception elements like a dance floor and cake table, and print place cards and other reports. Because it’s online, it’s compatible with any Internet-ready computer, and pricing starts at just $20 US. They also provide a free trial, so you can take the service for a spin first. Definitely worth checking out.
Photo Credits: Screenshots from perfecttableplan.com, seatingarrangement.com, and toptableplanner.com
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Thanks for the great review of Toptableplanner Jason!
Yes, being a completely web based tool, our brides can access and edit their seating plan whenever they’re online. We’ve heard of many brides (and grooms too) planning their wedding seating whilst they’re at work!
Other sites:
http://www.simpleseating.com (great drag-and-drop online ui)
http://www.perfecttableplan.com/home.html (another online EU site)
Hi
There will be another one to add to this least shortly. It’s a browser based drag and drop seating planner. It is designed to allow greater numbers of guests than the ones mentioned above and will be ready in early June 2012.
I am wanting to give the first 100 people FREE access to the wedding seating planner so if anyone emails me simon@webworx.co.uk with subject FREE SEATING I will notify them when the site is up and running.