Seating Chart Maker — Wedding & Event Seating Planner

A seating chart you can actually finish tonight

This is the whole loop: add tables (round or rectangle, 2–24 seats each), paste or type your guest list, then put people on seats — drag names onto the circles on desktop, or use the tap-name-then-tap-seat path that works identically on a phone. The tray on the right always shows who’s still unplaced, and the counter under the room keeps a running “137 guests · 121 seated · 16 unassigned” so you never lose count against the RSVP list.

When the hard part is done, Print chart + guest list produces the two artifacts every venue asks for: the chart itself on page one, and an alphabetical guest → table list on page two — the list your ushers actually need at the door. Download PNG gives you the chart as an image for the family group chat.

Why seats, not just “tables of eight”

Most list-based tools stop at “Alice is at Table 4”. Real seating charts go one level deeper because where at the table matters: the grandmother who needs the seat nearest the aisle, the two cousins who must not be shoulder-to-shoulder, the kid who belongs within sight of their parents. Here every seat is a real position — drop a guest on an occupied seat and they swap, shrink a table’s seat count and the overflow returns to the tray rather than silently vanishing.

The auto-assigner is a starting gun, not the answer

Fill tables in order and Balance tables both place only unseated guests into empty seats — your hand-placed VIPs and problem pairs stay exactly where you put them. The intended workflow: seat the must-fix people first (head table, divorced parents, the wheelchair spot by the door), then let auto-assign fill the rest of the room around them, then hand-tune the remaining awkward cases. It turns a two-hour slog into a twenty-minute edit.

Saved on your device — honestly

There is no account and no server copy. The chart autosaves to this browser’s local storage as you work, and Save keeps named events so a wedding, a rehearsal dinner and a classroom plan can coexist. Two honest caveats: local storage is per-device-and-browser (your phone won’t see what you made on the laptop), and clearing site data wipes it — so print or PNG the finished chart before you need it at the venue.

Private by design: names, notes and the chart never leave this tab. Load the page, switch off your network, and everything still works — including saving, printing and PNG export.

Before you finalise the room

• Seating-chart conventions & etiquette — who sits where, what the head table costs you, and the mistakes that offend.
• Round vs rectangle tables — the honest math — how many seats actually fit at a 60″ round or an 8-ft banquet, plus room spacing.
• Handling family-politics seating — divorced parents, feuding relatives, kids’ tables and singles, without drama.
• Seating charts beyond weddings — classrooms, galas, conferences and offices use the same mechanics differently.

Frequently asked questions

How do I seat guests — drag or tap?

Both work. On desktop, drag a name from the unassigned tray straight onto a seat circle (drop it on an occupied seat to swap). On any device — and this is the reliable path on a phone — tap the guest's name in the tray to “pick them up”, then tap a seat to place them. Tap a seated guest to pick them back up, or open their note.

Can I paste a whole guest list at once?

Yes — open Paste a guest list in the Guests panel and paste one name per line. A comma or tab after the name becomes that guest's note (Priya Sharma, vegetarian), which is exactly the format spreadsheet exports give you. Blank lines and # comments are skipped; duplicate names are kept on purpose, because two Uncle Bobs are a real thing.

What do the two auto-assign buttons do differently?

Fill tables in order packs Table 1 completely, then Table 2, and so on — the classic approach when you want front tables full. Balance tables deals guests round-robin, one per table per round, so every table fills evenly. Both only fill empty seats — guests you placed by hand are never moved.

Where is my chart saved?

On your device, in the browser's local storage — nothing is uploaded and there is no account. The working chart autosaves as you go; the Save button additionally stores it under the event name so you can keep several events (“Smith wedding”, “Gala dinner”) and load them from the Saved dropdown. Clearing site data deletes them.

What does “Print chart + guest list” produce?

Two pages: page 1 is the chart itself — every table, its seats and who's in them — and page 2 is an alphabetical guest→table list, the version you tape to the door so guests find their name fast. Choose “Save as PDF” in the print dialog to keep it as a file. The Download PNG button exports the chart as an image for messages and planning docs.

How many seats per table is realistic?

The tool allows 2–24 seats per table so it never blocks you, but physics still applies: a 60-inch round comfortably seats 8 (10 is tight), a 72-inch round seats 10–12, and an 8-foot banquet table seats 8–10. The round vs rectangle guide has the honest math — check it before you give a table 14 friends.

Can I use it for something other than a wedding?

Absolutely — the same drag-and-drop works for classroom seating plans, gala dinners, conference tables, and office layouts. See seating charts beyond weddings for how the conventions change per setting.

Does it work on my phone?

Yes — the whole tool runs on pointer events, so touch is a first-class path: tap a name, tap a seat. Pinch or use the +/− buttons to zoom into a crowded chart, and the guest tray scrolls independently of the room.