If you got a big wedding, i feel bad for you son, i got 99 problems, & my seating plan is all of them.

I am having 2 rectangle long table for the immediate family and then everyone else is getting round tables for people of 10. I am having 300 people so I understand. Now I recommend getting a seating chart and doing alphabetically versus by table seeing that you will have at least 20-25 tables.

Holy moly can't imagine doing a seating chart for that many people. I'm struggling with my 80 folks lol! Round tables might be better for a bigger wedding party. Good luck with the planning, i'm sure it will look amazing.

We opted for round tables as we believe they foster more conversation between the whole table instead of limiting you to the few people next to you like square and rectangular tables. I also found that they were a nice feel for the space we had.

We just did our seating plan last night, and it was much easier than I thought. In the end, we have a sweetheart table and 9 round tables of 7-10 people. We decided not to try to get them all to the same number, as that would have broken too many groups.

I think long tables are a great idea, as long as you make sure that it is easy to move around them (and if you have guests who may need to get up often, it would be easier for them to sit closer to the end).

Also, if you assign places, it would probably help guests to still put table numbers or names (several on each long table) so that they don't need to look all over the room for their place card.

As someone said earlier, it's easier to form groups, and then to put the groups together (for example, "his paternal aunts and uncles", "her cousins", "common friends").

I did my seating plan SUPER early too (before we got any RSVP's back lol). I actually found it easiest as I just removed people and rejigged it a bit if we had to add/remove people.

We had 80 people.. so a bit different, but we did rectangular tables as that's what our venue had. I liked the idea of big tables too, which is easier with rectangles. We ended up with a U shaped head table with 15 people (i sat our Bridal parties partners with us), and then 6 other tables that had between 9 - 14 people at them.

My mum got her own table with friends/family, my dad and the groomsdad shared a table with friends/family, and my mother in law got her table with friends family. Then I had another table of additional family friends/family and two friends tables!

We went with round tables (seat 8) for our 140 guest wedding and did not make a seating plan. Honestly it was the best decision ever, nobody complained about where they sat and it was stress-free!

We just make sure we had 2 extra tables as a buffer in case single seats did not get taken.

When planning the seating plan, look at whats available to you and how you would like to do the layout depending on the hall.

Play around with the idea and see what you two like and where you want to seat your guests.

For our hall, we were given retangular tables of 8 max and 2 of 10. I put a sweetheart table at the front and planned family on the front tables and other cousins and friends in the back row. Total tables were 9 and had a dancing floor in the middle section.

I think I'm going with 8-person round tables.

I am SO happy I am not making a seating chart, I had a little meltdown just doing it for fun the other day hahahahaha

I’m doing 10 5ft rounds one 24ft long and two 16ft long. Only way to accommodate a ball team and large groups of friends lol

My cousin got married last September with around 200 guests. They had the great hall seating and 3 big rows, with themselves in the center table of the center row. No actual head table! I didnt personally love the setup for my own wedding, but for a huge group it worked really well! The nice part about it though was that it was easy to feel close enough to chat with lots of people, but far enough away it didnt feel crowded!

I’m doing majority of round tables with only the family having rectangular table. We are have 300+ guest. Also get a seating chart and sort it alphabetically rather than tables.

My wedding is like a month after yours and I’ve made my seating chart so you’re not alone in getting it done early! I made it a few weeks back.

I think the beauty of round tables vs long tables is that you don’t have to individually seat people, just tell them which table to go to.


If you’re doing long tables I would recommend having place cards because I went to a wedding where there were long tables and no place cards and everyone was like panicking trying to sit and it was a mess well and truly. One guest got really rude with everyone about it too. It was honestly a headache, and thankfully they had a planner who was able to deal with it, but even then afformentioned rude guest was very loudly talking about how disorganized it was until I think the wedding planner asked her to basically shut up. (Thank god for that planner)

I would personally start by taking a look at your guest list and grouping together big families and such that will be sitting together. Then once you’ve got a bunch of groups of like 4-8 people start seating them on the plan.

Planning for a small guest count and though i’m not looking forward to doing the seating chart I know it will be quick and easy.

But tbh I mostly wanted to comment to tell you that your discussion title is CLASSIC! We’ll done!!👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

Dont worry me and my mother have already started with seating... we haven't sent out save the dates yet ahhahah!!!
Were doing a mix of round and kings tables to keep it a little mixed up and interesting!

If you like the long tables (I did as well) you will probably have to rent them so check into those before you set your seating plan to them. I suggest going into an event rental store and checking out some set ups to see if there’s a way to make it work. Also usually you can’t fit as many people in the space with long tables.

I went with round. Even though I love the look of the long tables I hate that when your sitting at them you can only talk to the people sitting right next to you (2-5 people max). At round tables you can talk with the whole table and not have to talk over or around someone else.

Also, wait till you have your RSVPs back to do this as your list will change when people you expect to come can’t make it or people you didn’t expect to are now coming. Wedding wire actually has a good page for catorgorizing your guests which I am finding helpful to sort out everyone. But try to hold off until the last 2 weeks.

And once you have a rough draft started if you get stuck with some people ask for help from moms or other family (1 from each side).

We are originally had 250 and then added and the numbers were up to 300 and now we are down to 176 confirmed and still some unconfirmed. We have enough seating for 250 people so we will be inviting people who were on our after party list. We made a seating plan of who was gonna sit with who and we’ve had whole tables cancel or maybe the last man standing. Our wedding is 3 weeks away and we still have to redo our setting plans. We are having round tables but I live the idea of hogwarts table set up. It’s important to commit to your idea as we booked our table and chairs and table cloths back in October I believe. So months in advance. Do research on cheapness of items as well don’t just go with the 1st person. We personally did round tables as it just worked better for us. We are making a seating plan per table otherwise they can choose who they sit beside at their table. 😎

By the way I also had a good laugh at your discussion title.

Oooh gurl I'm all over this. I made my seating plan when I made my guest list... Needless to say, it's changed a tad, as we cut 10, added 20, cut 15, added 5... (my guest list is only at 104 right now).

First question: What tables are available at your venue? I had to look up wedding photos to see how many chairs fit at my rounds. It's 8.

Second: What look do you want? If you like the long banquet tables... go for it. Commit. (Sort of, haha)... Maybe if you want, do long banquet tables on the outskirts, and have immediate family at rounds closer to the dance floor?

Third: Dance floor: Do you have one? How big is it? Where is it gonna be?

Fourth: Head table or sweetheart table? We are doing a sweetheart table because we have lopsided bridal parties, and all of them (minus his brother), have S.O.'s outside of the group, so we want them to be able to sit with their partners. They will be dispersed between tables 1, 2 & 3.

5: Don't worry about people sitting next to someone they don't know.... or being "bored" because they are with their family... I lumped all the families together... Moms, dads, and their adult kids and spouses. It was the easiest way to get groups of people seated... Then I organized them by his side/ my side/ friends... my extended family are near tables of other members of that "side" of the family... friends, whether they know eachother or not, have been grouped by approximate ages and if we feel like they will get along...

REMEMBER! People are sitting for dinner and speeches. They are either stuffing their face, or supposed to be quiet and paying attention... The important part of the party is after, and by then people move and visit anyways.

Also, I love the WeddingWire seating chart tool. You can toss people around, edit, change, etc, without going through a tree's worth of paper. So estimate, play around, make mistakes, etc... get the grunt work out of the way... then as RSVPs come in, you can start to edit.

Good luck!