Seating and place card guides
Everything that comes before the printing: how to build a seating chart, the difference between escort cards and place cards, how many guests fit at a table, and who sits where.
How to make a wedding seating chart
The RSVPs are finally in, and now a hundred names have to land at a dozen tables. Here is a straightforward way to build the chart without moving sticky notes around a wall for a week.
Read the guide →Escort cards vs place cards
Two little cards, endlessly mixed up. They do different jobs, and knowing which is which saves you from printing the wrong thing.
Read the guide →How to make place cards at home
You do not need a calligrapher or a craft store run. A home printer, a stack of cardstock, and a straight edge will get you a full set of place cards in an afternoon.
Read the guide →How many guests per table
Before you can seat anyone, you need to know how many chairs go around each table. Here are the standard sizes and what they hold.
Read the guide →Wedding seating chart etiquette
There is no seating police, but a few common conventions make the room flow. Treat these as starting points, not rules you have to follow.
Read the guide →Assigned seats or open seating
Do you have to tell every guest where to sit? No. But the right choice depends on your meal, your headcount, and how well your guests know each other.
Read the guide →Day-of wedding stationery checklist
The invitations went out months ago. The day-of paper is a different list, and it is easy to forget a piece until the week of. Here is what most receptions need.
Read the guide →How to word place cards
A place card only has room for a little, so the wording matters. The goal is simple: every guest finds their name fast and no one feels slighted.
Read the guide →How to make escort cards
Escort cards do one job: send each guest to the right table without a bottleneck at the door. Here is how to make a whole set at home without hand-lettering a hundred names.
Read the guide →How to make a seating chart in Excel
A spreadsheet is a fine place to decide who sits where. It is a rough place to make the actual cards. Here is how to plan the seating in Excel or Google Sheets, then turn it into printed paper without wrestling the page layout.
Read the guide →How to seat divorced parents
Divorced parents are the seating question that keeps couples up at night. It does not have to be a standoff. A few kind, common choices settle it, and none of them ask anyone to sit somewhere uncomfortable.
Read the guide →The kids table at a wedding
A kids table can be the best seat in the house or a small riot by the cake. Whether to have one, and how to run it, comes down to how many children are coming and how old they are.
Read the guide →Sweetheart table vs head table
Where the two of you sit sets the tone for the whole room. The choice comes down to a sweetheart table for just the couple or a head table with the wedding party, and each one changes the rest of your seating.
Read the guide →Table numbers or names
Numbering your tables is fast and foolproof. Naming them adds personality but asks a little more of your guests. Here is how to choose, and how the choice ripples through the rest of your paper.
Read the guide →How to make table numbers
Table numbers look like the easy part, right up until a guest is standing in the middle of the room squinting at a card the size of a business card. Here is how to make numbers people can actually find, and keep them in step with the rest of your plan.
Read the guide →How to make a seating chart in Canva
Canva is a lovely place to design a sign. It is a slow place to seat 120 people. Here is how to build a seating chart in Canva, and where you will feel the drag, so you can decide if it is the right tool for your list.
Read the guide →How to make a seating chart in Word
Word is where a lot of people try to turn the plan into paper. It can do it, with a table for the chart or mail merge for the cards. Here is the method, and the part that quietly eats an evening.
Read the guide →How to make place cards in Word
Word mail merge can print a place card for every guest without retyping the list. It is the classic way, and it works. It is also fiddly in three specific places, so here is the setup and where to slow down.
Read the guide →How to make a seating chart in PowerPoint
A PowerPoint slide is a blank canvas the size of a poster, which is why people reach for it to draw a seating chart that mirrors the room. Here is how to lay one out, and where it turns into an evening of nudging boxes.
Read the guide →How to display your wedding seating chart
The chart is done. Now every guest has to find their seat in the first few minutes, usually while holding a drink and talking to someone. How you display the plan at the door decides whether that line moves or stalls.
Read the guide →