I am all for making wedding planning easier. After all, it was far harder and more nasty than I expected. Really, it can just kill you. Anyway, early on in the planning and organizing process, the designer of a neat piece of software offered me a comp version to try out. Well, boy am I glad I did!

The software is called Perfect TablePlan – and it will make seating charts a breeze. Really, I heard horror stories about seating plans, but mine was organized in about half an hour. No kidding around.

Here is how it works:

1. Use it to determine who to invite (optional) in a nice long list, entering people as single, couples or families
2. When you get your RSVP, tick them as Accepted
3. Get your reception facility map of where your tables are laid out, table shapes, and numbers per table, and simply reproduce them on the screen
4. Create your seating plan
   • Random: Choose "relationships" – who should sit close together, at the same table, or far away. Then, let the computer give it a shot. If it’s close, "lock" good table matches then re-try the random settings.
   • Manual: Drag people to tables
5. Print (plain lists, tables, floor plans)

Now, you can do much more with this software, including setting meal preferences. But even if you just use it instead of a horrible Excel spreadsheet, you’ll be happy. It’s so much easier just to drag and drop names to make changes than to mess around in Excel.

You’ll be happy. Your guestts will be happy. And your reception facility will be happy

Perfect TablePlan is easy to use, has nice graphics, and has versatile ways to view and change all your seating needs. Thankfully, the seating plan was one thing I can truly say went smoothly!

Check out the tour.