Seating chart software for wedding planners and venues

Every wedding of the season in one place

From May to September it is normal to have several weddings on the go, each at a different stage: one still waiting for a guest list, one with 180 people to seat and one waiting on final changes. In Seating Crowd each wedding is a separate event with its own list, seat map and statistics, and what you change in one stays there.

The app keeps personal and professional venues apart, so your clients’ rooms never mix with the family dinner you might plan for yourself.

Draw each room once and use it for every wedding

A venue sets up the same room dozens of times a year. In the editor you draw it once, starting from the “Wedding reception” template (round tables and a place for the couple) or a blank canvas, then pick it for each new event.

• Round or rectangular tables, the top table (a head table or sweetheart table in the US), a stage and labels for the dance floor or bar.
• Sections for separate areas, such as the main hall and a marquee.
• Wheelchair-accessible seats, and disabled seats behind a pillar or in front of a fire exit.
• SVG floor plan import, if you already have one.

The couple’s spreadsheet, as it arrives

Guest lists arrive in every shape: first and last names in one cell, meal choices buried in a notes column, and columns you will never use. Seating Crowd imports .xlsx and .xls files and lets you decide what each column is before anything is loaded.

1. 1

   Ask for one row per person

   The biggest time saver is a list with every guest on their own row, children and plus-ones included. Send the couple the Excel guest list template.

2. 2

   Map each column

   On import, mark each column as an ID, text, numbers or photos, and skip the ones you don’t need.

3. 3

   Add what is missing

   Text, number, companion, photo or colour-coded columns, such as meal choice or side of the family.

4. 4

   Check who is still unseated

   Filter by unseated guests to see exactly who is left after each round of changes.

To help couples with their side of the work, the guide to making a wedding seating chart sets out the order to follow and the top table guide covers who sits with them.

Colours for the floor and counts for the kitchen

You can colour the seats by any column. By side of the family, an unbalanced table stands out during the meeting with the couple. By meal choice, the caterer can see which tables have vegetarian, gluten-free and children’s meals.

Statistics add up every column across the event: occupancy, free seats and how many guests share each value. That is the count the kitchen asks for (for example, 142 adult meals, 18 children’s, 9 vegetarian and 4 gluten-free), and it updates with every change.

When the plan is final, export the list to Excel with every guest’s seat and send it to the venue or caterer.

Changes in the final week

The Thursday before the wedding brings two cancellations, a new plus-one and an aunt who cannot sit next to a cousin. Search for each person by name, drag them to their new seat and, if it is taken, choose whether to swap the two guests or replace the one who was there.

The brush frees or disables several seats at once, for example a whole table the venue has to remove. Every step can be undone, and the app saves as you go.

With the AI agent, a paid add-on billed in credits, you can type “seat everyone who doesn’t have a seat yet” and fine-tune by hand afterwards.

Plans for people who run many events

If you plan weddings every month, a subscription costs less than paying event by event. Every plan has every feature, and they differ in how many events you can have open at once and how many guests each holds.

Annual billing charges 10 months for 12. Pro suits an independent planner, Ultra suits agencies and large venues, and Enterprise is for hotel groups and venue networks. Full details are on the pricing page.