# A wedding seating chart that keeps every family together, without a spreadsheet

> Seat your guests at the tables with each family kept together, and print table cards in your invitation's style as an A4 PDF.

Tell Ring how many tables the party has and how many seats each one, and it seats your guests keeping every invitation together. You adjust whatever you like and, at the end, print the table cards in the same style as your invitation.

- [Seating chart](https://ringplanner.app/en/features/wedding-seating-chart)
- [Ring: Wedding planner](https://ringplanner.app/en)

## Seating the tables is a puzzle that changes with every reply

The seating chart is usually left for the last few weeks, when the list is almost closed. Then the puzzle starts: the bride's family at one table, the college friends at another, the uncle who has to sit near the door, the table for ten that got twelve.

On paper or in a spreadsheet, every new reply undoes part of the work. Someone confirms with a plus-one, someone else says they can't come, and the seats stop adding up. It's easy for a family to end up split without anyone noticing.

Then come the table cards: the table's number, the names, all matching the invitation, made the night before. In Ring, the tables use the same guest list that already gets the replies, and the cards come ready from it.

## How to make your wedding seating chart in Ring

The seating chart is in Guests, on the chair icon, and also opens from the "Make the seating chart" task in your plan.

1. **Say how many tables and seats**: The app suggests how many tables from the size of your list. The ones that differ, like the couple's table, you adjust later, one by one, with a number, a name and seats.
2. **Seat everyone left**: One tap on "Seat everyone left" seats the guests without a table, an invitation at a time, never splitting the people on the same invitation and never moving anyone you already seated.
3. **Adjust as you like**: Open a table to take someone off or seat another invitation, or pick the table on the guest's sheet. If someone from their invitation sits with them, the app asks whether to move the whole invitation or only that person.
4. **Print the table cards**: Each table becomes an A4 sheet with its number, its name, who sits there and your names with the date, in your invitation's style. Folded along the lines, it stands up as a triangle.

## Made to keep families together and the seats adding up

- **The invitation is the family**: Whoever you put on the same invitation sits at the same table. Seating someone apart, like a child at the kids' table, is always your choice.
- **Seats that always add up**: Confirmed guests and those who haven't replied yet take a seat, and so do plus-ones. Whoever said they won't come is shown apart, with one tap to free the seat.
- **What doesn't fit, explained**: When an invitation is larger than any table with free seats, the app says which one and how many seats are missing, instead of splitting the family on its own.
- **Table cards that match your invitation**: The cards use the style, color and lettering chosen for your invitation, with margins for a home printer and the fold lines marked.

## Seating chart: frequently asked questions

### How do I make a wedding seating chart without splitting families?

In Ring, say how many tables there are and how many seats each has. The app seats the guests without a table one invitation at a time, and the people on the same invitation always share a table. Then you adjust whatever you like and print the table cards as a PDF.

### Do guests who haven't replied yet take a seat?

Yes. Confirmed guests and those who haven't replied take a seat, so the count doesn't overflow at the last minute. Whoever said they won't come stops counting and, if they were already at a table, shows up there apart, with the option to free the seat.

### Can the tables be different sizes?

Yes. Start with them all the same size and change the ones that differ, one by one. Each table can have a name besides its number, like "Couple's table".

### What do the table cards look like?

One portrait A4 sheet per table, with the fold lines marked. Folded, it stands on the table as a triangle with both faces alike: the table's number and name, who sits there and your names with the date, in your invitation's style.

### Can we both work on the seating chart?

Yes. When you plan together in the app, you both see and change the same tables, and what one of you does shows up on the other's phone right away.

### Do guests see the seating chart?

No. The seating chart is yours alone, in the app. Guests find their table on the table cards, on the day.