How to Organize a Seating Chart
Not everyone can get along. The trick to organizing a seating chart is to fit like-minded individuals together, to limit bickering and enhance the flow of pleasant conversation. A seating chart can help your special moment run smoothly. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- List of guests
- Seating arrangements
- Highlighters of different colors
- Pencil
- Pen
- Paper
- Poster Board
Instructions
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1
Create a list of all the guests; name it Secondary List.
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2
Make a copy of that list and label it the Master List; put this list to the side to use it later.
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3
Organize the list into two sides, your family and his family. If the seating chart is created for guests from the same family, create one big list. For either format, write in known friends and family in pencil and highlight them in different colors.
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4
Determine the table arrangements. For example, you have 10 tables that can hold eight people each.
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Draw a circle or rectangle, depending on the table type, on a piece of paper. Do this on a separate piece of paper for each table.
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Draw as many lines as that there are seats, to represent the number of seats available at each table.
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Look at your list of guests and pick out the easy groupings represented by the highlighted colors: yellows with the yellows, pinks with the pinks, etc. Put an X by each name on your Secondary Name list when you place the name on the table list.
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Analyze the rest of the people, and write all their names on one sheet of paper.
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Take the table sheets and the sheet with the names not yet placed, and slowly go through each name not yet placed. Place the name in a table with an open seat that you feel will best suit the group. Draw a star next to each of these names, on the table sheet, in case you have to switch one of the names later in the process. That way you can easily determine who in that table was an added name.
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Analyze the list of names, and once you determine every name is seated, go through the entire list again and check off each name from the Master List of names, then check the same name off the table sheet. If all the names are checked off on both lists and there are no names left, then proceed. Account for any errors.
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Number each table on the table sheets.
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Take out a new blank sheet of paper and draw a floor plan of how you want the tables set up in the area. Seat your best friends and family members at the tables with the best views, since where they are seated and how good the view is will be a discussion among guests.
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Analyze the seating chart one last time and make sure it is perfect. Grab the poster board and a pen and draw out the floor plan, with the tables and their respective names next to the seats. Keep the poster board as the map to the party.
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Tips & Warnings
Remember to have fun, this is your big night.
References
- Photo Credit Digital Vision./Digital Vision/Getty Images
