Free seating chart templates

Which template to use

You’ll usually use two, the guest list and one of the charts. If the venue mixes a long top table with round guest tables, pick the round-table chart, which already has a top table.

How to fill in the guest list template

Use one row per person, children and plus-ones included, so counting seats or menus is a matter of filtering a column.

• Name: first name and surname as they’ll appear on place cards. For a plus-one whose name you don’t know yet, write “Guest of Anna Puig” and update it later.
• Group: who this person should sit with, such as “Smith family” or “Tom’s work”. Keep couples in the same group. The free seating chart generator builds tables from this column.
• Side or company: bride’s side, groom’s side or both; for a corporate event, the company. It helps you balance the room.
• Table: blank until you decide, then the table number or name.
• Menu and allergies: adult, child, vegetarian or vegan, plus any allergy spelt out (“coeliac”, “nut allergy”). Caterers usually ask for these by table.
• Notes: anything that affects the seat, such as a wheelchair, a high chair or “not next to Uncle Joe”.

Headers come in the language of this page. When you import the file into Seating Crowd you choose what each column is, so you can rename, remove or add columns freely.

How to use the printable seating charts

1. Print two or three copies, so you have a clean one for the final version.
2. Fill in the top table first, then the tables closest to it, which usually go to close family.
3. Write in pencil until the RSVPs are in, because the plan will change more than once.
4. Give each group a highlighter colour (bride’s family, groom’s family, friends, work) to see at a glance whether the room is balanced.
5. Number or name the tables the way the venue does, so the catering team reads the same plan as you.
6. Count the names on each table against its seats before you ink them in.

The round-table chart has a line per seat at tables of 10. If yours seat 8, cross out two lines per table. On long tables, decide who sits opposite whom as well as side by side, because conversation runs across the table.

If you’re unsure how many tables you need, the wedding table calculator works it out from your guest count, and our guide on how to make a wedding seating chart helps you decide who goes where.

From the template to the wedding day

Once the plan is final, it turns into what guests and staff use on the day.

• A table plan or seating chart board at the entrance to the dinner, listing guests alphabetically with their table, or table by table. Alphabetical lists are quicker to scan at large weddings.
• Escort cards that tell each guest their table, plus place cards at each seat if you’re assigning seats too. For names instead of numbers, see our table name ideas.
• A copy for the venue and caterer with the guests, menus and allergies at each table, taken from your Excel list.

Send the venue the final version a few days before, and keep a printed copy with you.

When a template stops being enough

A spreadsheet and a printed chart work well for a small wedding with a settled list. They get hard to manage when:

• the list keeps changing and every change means rubbing out half the plan;
• you’re past 150 guests and the groups no longer fit in your head;
• several people are editing (you, your partner, both families, a planner) and the copies stop matching.

If the list changes often, the seating chart generator rebuilds the tables each time and keeps groups together. With several editors, agree on one master file and one person who updates it.