Your guest list started as two lists. Put them in one plan, see both families in the room you booked, and make the seating calls together instead of trading spreadsheet versions.
Free for up to 20 guests and 4 tables. No credit card required.
Merge the lists, agree the room, then split the work.
Import each of your spreadsheets, or a list exported from your wedding website, and give every guest a category for their side. Now there is one list, and both of you are reading it.
Not the whole wedding. Just the chart, which is where two families first have to share a room.
Give each guest a category for their side, and color each table by whose it is. The mixed tables stand out, and so does a table that was meant to be mixed and is not.
On the Planner plan, invite your partner to edit the same chart, and up to two more people besides. Everyone works from the current version.
Write down the non-negotiables once, like which exes stay apart and which couples stay together. The chart warns you when a move breaks one.
Let auto-assign fill the tables from your rules and sides, then change what you disagree with. It is faster than two blank pages.
Mark each guest attending, declined or waiting, so the chart counts only the people who are coming.
Export the final plan as a PDF for the coordinator, and the guest list as a spreadsheet with every table and meal choice.
Start by agreeing the shape of the room and the size of the tables. That is a decision about the venue, and it is rarely where the disagreement is.
Next, decide the few tables that carry the most weight: your own table, both sets of parents, and grandparents. If your families come with complications, settle those tables before anyone else is seated, because every other table follows from them.
Then divide the rest by who knows whom. Each of you seats your own side, and you do the mixed tables together. Friends from work, college and home can share a table more easily than two families can.
Leave the chart open until the RSVP deadline has passed. A declined invitation in week three moves four other people, and it is easier when both of you can see the same plan.
Who sits where by tradition, and when to ignore it.
Arrangements that keep the day calm for everyone.
The full tour of how a chart is built.
Both lists, the room and every seat in one place, visible to both of you.
When one of you moves a table or a guest cancels, the other sees it the next time they open the plan, without anyone emailing a new file.
A shared spreadsheet is how most couples start, and it holds a guest list well. It cannot show you the room, so every seating decision is made in your heads and then typed back in.
PlanSeats keeps the list and puts it in the room: the tables you booked, the people at each one, and the empty seats that are left.
| Shared spreadsheet | PlanSeats |
|---|---|
| Names in rows, table numbers in a column | Names in seats, at tables, in your room |
| Both sides in one long list | Both sides in categories, tables colored by side |
| A moved guest means retyping the table | A moved guest is one drag |
| Rules live in your heads | Rules are written down and checked |
Keep the spreadsheet if you like it. Import it here when it is time to seat people.
Yes, on the Planner plan ($8.99 a month). Invite your partner to edit, and up to two more people, such as a parent or your maid of honor. On Free you can share a view-only link.
Import both spreadsheets into the same plan, and give each guest a category for their side as you go. From then on there is one list.
Write it down as a rule. Keep two people apart, or keep a couple together, and the chart warns you when a move breaks something you already agreed.
Free for up to 20 guests and 4 tables, which is enough to try it on your own table and your parents'. For the whole wedding, the Planner plan is $8.99 a month.
No. Send them a view-only link, or export the chart as a PDF they can print.
Both families, one room, and a plan you both can open. Settle it once, then keep it current until the day.
Free for up to 20 guests and 4 tables. No credit card required.