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Wednesday, December 7, 2011

What Tools Can Help Me with My Seating Arrangements?

One of the most important (and sometimes most challenging) tasks to complete is your reception seating chart. Who’s going to sit by whom? Which people should be placed on opposites sides of the room? How should my reception room be arranged? This article shares a few of the online tools that are available to help make this part of wedding planner easier.


TheKnot.com
One of the most popular wedding planning sites available, a very popular feature is the seating chart section. You can design your floor plan, name and arrange your tables, and assign guests to a table. You can then print the diagram, although I’ve heard from a few couples that it can be a bit of a challenge to get on one page if you have a large layout.

Seatingarrangement.com
This site has many of the same features as TheKnot. It’s really easy to design your floor plan by dragging and dropping icons for tables, bars, etc. You can also change the dimensions of the room and sizes of the icons, so you get a realistic picture of your specific venue. Finally, just like The Knot, this tool is free!

Perfecttableplan.com
We liked this site as well, but found it was a bit easier to add and save guests than seatingarrangement.com (just our opinion). What I like most about this site is the fact that it has online tutorial videos that give you an overview of the site, and also provide instructions on how to do specific things (such as adding guests or assigning seats, for example). You can download a 30-day free trial, or purchase the home edition of the product for $29.95.

Wedding Magic
A tool from Frogware.com (http://frogware.com/wedding_magic.html), this is an overall wedding planning tool, and is not just for seating arrangements. Many of the same features in options above are available in this one. One additional feature is the ability to email guests and vendors directly from the software. You can also download a 30-day free trial or purchase the CD for $32.99.

Your Planning Assignment
As you can see, there are many options from which to choose. Try each one (or search for additional options) to decide which one fits your needs best. Happy Planning!