Seating chart generator

The poster on screen is the same layout the PDF prints: your event name, the date line, and every table with its names. The other tabs preview the other pieces.

Change the list and press download again, or, with the Event Pass, build every print file again with one click as one ZIP. Cards are made from the same list, so a name changed once is changed everywhere.

Not sure which poster size to print? The wedding seating chart sign page shows how large the names come out on each size, for 40 to 200 guests.

1. Set the tables. Choose how many tables, how many seats each takes and whether they are round or long. Most venues use rounds that seat 8 to 10, but check your venue’s numbers. You can rename any table or change its seats.
2. Add rules if you need them. “Must sit together” and “Must not sit together” take two names each.
3. Press Seat guests. If the tables are too few, the planner adds tables of the same size so that everyone has a seat, and tells you how many it added.

Then adjust by hand. Drag a name to another table, or use the Floor plan view to place the tables where they stand in the room and move names between them.

A seating chart answers one question for every guest: where do I sit? The slow part is not the drawing. It is keeping families together, keeping two people apart, and not leaving a table with one empty chair while another is full. This planner does that part for you. Start with the guest list you already have, press Seat guests, then move names by hand wherever the automatic result is not what you would do.

The plain definition, from Wikipedia’s article on the subject:

Paste from a spreadsheet or an RSVP export, one guest per line, or upload a CSV. Only the name is required. Extra columns are matched by position, or by title when the first row is a header.

The sample list under the paste box shows the format with 24 guests. A template CSV is one click away.

A perfect seating chart is a hard problem. Researchers who studied a commercial wedding planner put it this way:

So no seating chart generator can promise the best chart for a large wedding in a second. This one finds a good answer fast and tells you where it could not meet a wish:

• A group that is bigger than a table cannot sit together. The planner splits it, and the split shows under “Needs a look”.
• Rules can contradict each other, for example two people who must sit together and each must be away from a third. The ones that cannot be met are listed.
• Guests who do not fit anywhere stay in the “Not seated” tray, and guests without a table are left off the printed poster and cards.
• Two guests with the same name look alike to the rules. Give them different names, such as “Chris A.” and “Chris B.”.
• Letters that none of the included fonts cover, such as Arabic or emoji, are left out of the PDF. The CSV keeps them exactly.
• Tap a name to see which of its rules the seat meets and which it does not.

A spreadsheet is fine for ten guests. At a hundred, the problems start: moving one person means retyping two columns, and nothing warns you when a rule is broken. Here a move is one drag, the broken rules are marked at once, and the poster, the A to Z list and the cards come from one list. There is no account, nothing is uploaded, and you can use it as long as you like without paying. For a class, which needs rows and not tables, use the classroom seating chart. If your list already lives in a sheet, see how to set up an Excel seating chart template that pastes straight in.

Using another tool already? We read their public pages and wrote down what each does and where this planner differs: the Zola seating chart (free for 15 guests), the WeddingWire seating chart, and a Canva seating chart template, which designs the sign but does not seat the guests.

The whole seating chart is free, with no guest limit; free downloads carry a small watermark. The Event Pass is US$14.90, paid once, no automatic renewal, 90 days from purchase and adds the full print pack. See pricing, including the 14-day refund.