Wedding Seating Planner
Plan your wedding reception seating with drag-and-drop floor plans, guest management, dietary tracking and table assignments for up to 200 guests
How Many People Should Sit at Each Table?
Round tables seat 8 to 10 comfortably; pushing to 12 makes it hard for guests on opposite sides to talk. Long banquet tables (6 ft trestles) seat 6 to 8 per length, plus 1 at each end if your venue allows. The planner defaults to 8 per table, so a 80-guest reception lands on 10 tables, which is the sweet spot for most UK barn and hotel venues.
If you are tight on floor space, 8 round tables seating 10 is more efficient than 10 tables of 8 because each round needs roughly the same 1.8 m diameter regardless of seat count. Long tables save 20% of floor area but kill cross-table conversation, so save them for receptions where the focus is the speeches and the food rather than mingling.
Grouping Guests Without Causing a Family Row
The planner ships with eight pre-set groups: Bride's Family, Groom's Family, Bride's Friends, Groom's Friends, Colleagues, Plus Ones, Children, and Other. Tagging each guest is the single most useful thing you can do; it then becomes obvious that putting Aunt Margaret on the same table as her ex-husband's new partner is a mistake before you commit to printing place cards.
A common pattern: top table for the immediate wedding party, family tables radiating out from it (his parents on one side, hers on the other), friend tables further out, and a children's table near the exit so parents can grab a tired toddler without disturbing the speeches. Use the [Wedding Budget Calculator](/wedding-budget-calculator) to track how table count drives catering, linen and centrepiece costs.
Quick Sizing Guide for Common Guest Counts
| Guests | Round Tables (10 each) | Long Tables (8 each) | Floor Space (approx) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | 5 | 7 | 60 sq m |
| 80 | 8 | 10 | 95 sq m |
| 100 | 10 | 13 | 120 sq m |
| 140 | 14 | 18 | 165 sq m |
| 200 | 20 | 25 | 230 sq m |
Tracking Dietary Requirements in One Place
Eight dietary tags cover almost every UK wedding: vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, nut allergy, dairy-free, halal, kosher, and other. Tag guests as their RSVPs come in, and the planner shows how many of each are sat at each table; your caterer needs that breakdown by table 14 days before the day, not a single grand total.
For a 100-guest reception, expect 10 to 15 vegetarian, 3 to 5 vegan, 3 to 5 gluten-free, and 1 to 3 nut-allergic. These numbers vary wildly by region (a London wedding skews higher on plant-based; a Welsh farm wedding skews lower) and by friend group. The planner exports a per-table dietary list as a PDF you can email straight to the chef without retyping anything.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I drag tables around the floor plan?
Yes. Tables are draggable on the canvas, so you can match the actual venue layout: dance floor in the middle, top table against the long wall, family tables nearest the action, and the children's table by the exit. The drag-and-drop view doubles as a venue diagram you can hand to the venue manager when they set up the morning of the wedding.
What about the top table - who sits there?
The traditional UK top table seats the couple in the centre, with the bride's parents on her side and the groom's on his, then the best man and chief bridesmaid at each end. Modern variations skip the head table entirely (sweetheart table for two), or seat both sets of parents at their own family tables to give them ownership of the room. The planner supports both - tag a table as 'Top Table' in the table name field.
How do I handle plus-ones who haven't RSVP'd yet?
Add them as named placeholders ('John Doe +1') with the Plus One tag, leave them unassigned to a table, and revisit the seating once the RSVP deadline (typically 4 to 6 weeks before the wedding) has passed. The planner saves your work in your browser, so you can come back to it as the final guest count firms up.
Should children sit with their parents?
Under-5s yes; 5 to 12 year olds usually love a dedicated kids' table with colouring, simple food and an early service slot. Teenagers often prefer to sit with adult friends. The Children group tag makes it easy to spot at a glance how many you have and whether a separate table is worth the linen hire and high chair surcharges.
Can I print place cards from this?
The premium PDF export gives you a per-table seating list, a master seating chart, and a name-to-table lookup that doubles as the printer-friendly source for place cards. Use a service like Printed.com or order from Etsy for the final cards in your wedding stationery style.