Wedding seating chart template for Excel

A spreadsheet is free, you already own it, and a partner can open the same file. For ten tables of friends it works. The trouble starts when the list moves: nothing in a sheet tells you that a table has nine people at an eight-seat table, or that two guests who must not meet are side by side. You also see rows, not a room, so the sign and the place cards are a second job. That second part is what the planner adds.

One guest per row, with a header row on top. The planner reads the header words below; use any of them.

If you want a ready-made start, press “Download template CSV” under the paste box in the planner: it has the columns name, group, tag and meal and three example rows, and opens in Excel. Put the household in the Group column. It is the one column that changes the seating, because a household is kept at one table where it fits.

Select the cells in Excel or Google Sheets, copy, and paste into the guest box. We tested a sheet of 36 rows with six columns (name, household, side, meal, a table column filled in by hand, and RSVP), one guest answering No. The preview shows what it found before anything is added:

Press “Download CSV”. It has the columns name, group, tag, meal and table, one row per guest. These are the first rows from the test:

name,group,tag,meal,table
Dev Banerjee,Banerjee,Groom,Beef,Table 1
Elena Banerjee,Banerjee,Bride,Fish,Table 1
Femi Banerjee,Banerjee,Bride,Vegetarian,Table 1
Greta Costa,Costa,Bride,Beef,Table 2

Open it in Excel or Google Sheets to sort by table, or send it to the caterer. The place cards and the poster come from the same list.

The planner does not read a column of table numbers. If you have already seated everyone in Excel, the Table column is ignored, as in the picture above, and the guests are seated again by the planner. Drag the names that should be elsewhere, or keep Excel as the master.

• Stay in Excel if the plan is small, finished, and nobody needs a poster.
• Use the planner if the list is long, still changing, or needs a first draft with families together. Want the look of a designed sign? See the Canva template page.