About this planner

A free, to-scale wedding seating chart maker

Seat Your Family is a free tool for laying out your wedding reception. Instead of dragging names around a spreadsheet, you enter your venue's real dimensions, drop round or banquet tables that stay drawn to scale, and type each guest straight into a chair. When you're done, one click exports a clean, table-by-table guest list as a PDF for your venue or day-of coordinator. There's no signup, no watermark, and your chart saves privately in your own browser.

Working to scale matters more than it sounds. Most seating chart apps are really just a prettier guest list — names dragged into boxes, with no connection to the room they'll sit in. Those tools will happily let you plan twelve tables in a space that fits nine once the dance floor, bar, and DJ take their share. Because this planner draws tables, chairs, and walkways at your venue's true proportions, you find out on day one — not on setup day — whether the layout in your head actually fits, and your coordinator gets a floor plan they can measure against.

How to use the planner

1. Set your venue. Open the menu (top-left) to enter your room's width and depth in feet, or drag the handles on the room's edges to resize it. Everything you place stays proportional to this space.
2. Add tables. Pick the round or rectangle tool from the bottom bar and click to place a table. Rectangle tables seat banquet-style down the long sides, with optional head and foot seats.
3. Set the seat count. Select a table and use the side panel to set how many chairs it has. Chairs space themselves evenly and cap automatically by table size, so you can't overcrowd.
4. Arrange the room. Drag tables anywhere, rotate them to fit, and drop labels for the dance floor, bar, or entrance. Use undo/redo freely while you experiment, and duplicate a finished table instead of rebuilding it.
5. Seat your guests. Type names directly into each chair. Filled seats turn green so you can see at a glance who still needs a spot.
6. Export a PDF. Click Export to download a guest list grouped by table number — ready to print or hand off.

Tips for a layout that actually fits

• Wait until roughly 90% of your RSVPs are in before you finalize — every “maybe” seated early is a table you'll redo.
• Leave at least 4–5 feet between tables so guests can pull out chairs and servers can pass.
• Keep older guests near the entrance and away from the speakers; put the dance-happy crowd toward the center.
• Place the head or sweetheart table where it's visible from every seat.
• Don't split couples or plus-ones — seat them side by side, then build the rest of the table around something shared: college friends, coworkers, cousins who actually like each other.
• Keep one or two seats unassigned near the back. A vendor meal, an officiant who stays, or a surprise plus-one is far easier to absorb into an open chair than to reshuffle at 5 p.m. on the day.

Common reception layouts at a glance

Not sure where to start? Almost every reception is a variation on four layouts. Sketch the one closest to your venue, then adjust — moving a table takes one drag, and the room stays to scale the whole time.

• All rounds. The classic. 60-inch rounds seating 8 need roughly a 10×10-foot footprint each once chairs and walking space are counted, so a 40×60-foot hall comfortably holds 14–16 of them plus a dance floor. Rounds are the most forgiving layout for conversation, since nobody sits at a “bad end.”
• Banquet rows. Long runs of 8-foot rectangles, seated down both sides. Rows feel communal and photograph beautifully, but they eat aisle space: keep at least 5 feet between parallel rows or servers can't pour without reaching over shoulders. Best in long, narrow rooms and barns.
• U-shape or king's table. One connected head arrangement for the wedding party and immediate family, with guest tables beyond it. It puts the couple in sight of everyone, but the inside of the U is dead space — count on it costing you a table or two of capacity.
• Mixed. The most common real-world answer: a rectangular head table on one wall, rounds for most guests, and a banquet row or two along the sides for larger families. Mixing shapes also solves awkward groups — a party of 11 that won't split fits a rectangle better than any round.

Whichever direction you lean, lay out the fixed features first — dance floor, bar, DJ or band, cake table, gift table — and only then place seating in what's left. Guests can squeeze; a dance floor can't.

When to make your seating chart

The biggest seating chart mistake isn't a layout problem, it's a timing problem: starting too early and redoing it five times. A realistic schedule looks like this:

• 2–3 months out: rough in the room — venue dimensions, dance floor, bar, head table, and the approximate table count your guest list implies. Don't seat anyone yet.
• After your RSVP deadline (typically 3–4 weeks out): do the real assignment in one or two sittings, once roughly 90% of responses are in. Group by table first, then fine-tune individual chairs.
• 1 week out: lock it, export the PDF, and send it to your venue and coordinator. Late cancellations now become pencil edits on paper, not another redesign.

Because your chart lives in this browser, it will still be here across those weeks — save nothing, sign up for nothing, just come back and keep going.

Read more in our guides

New to seating charts, or stuck on a tricky decision? These free, in-depth guides walk through the whole process:

Frequently asked questions

Is the seating chart planner really free?

Yes. The planner is free with no signup and no watermark on your PDF. An optional one-time $2.99 upgrade removes ads if you'd prefer a distraction-free workspace.

Do I need an account?

No. Your chart saves automatically in your own browser, so you can close the tab and come back to it later on the same device. Nothing is uploaded to a server.

How many guests fit at each table?

Chairs space themselves and are capped by table size. As a rule of thumb a 60-inch round seats about 8, a 72-inch round about 10, and an 8-foot banquet table 8–10. See the table sizes guide for the full chart.

Can I use this on my phone?

The editor needs the room of a tablet (landscape), laptop, or desktop to be usable, so it's best on a larger screen. You can read all of our planning guides on any device.

What does the exported PDF include?

The export is a clean guest list grouped by table number — every table with its seated guests in order — formatted for printing or emailing to your venue, caterer, or day-of coordinator. There's no watermark on it.

Can I come back and edit my chart later?

Yes. Your chart saves automatically in this browser as you work, so you can close the tab today and pick up where you left off next week on the same device. When RSVPs change, just move the names and export a fresh PDF.

Does it work for events other than weddings?

Absolutely. The planner is just tables, chairs, and a to-scale room, so it works the same for quinceañeras, galas, corporate dinners, bar and bat mitzvahs, or any banquet-style event with assigned seating.

Is there a limit on tables or guests?

No hard limit — add as many tables and guests as your venue holds. Because everything is drawn to scale, the practical limit is the one that matters: what physically fits in your room.

Stuck on something the FAQ doesn't cover, or spotted a bug? We read every message — see the contact page, or learn more about Seat Your Family.