Everything you need to plan wedding seating
From your first guest list to a print-ready chart — every part of Lovely Seating stays connected, so a change in one place updates the rest.
Free to start·No credit card required·Unlimited guests
One plan, from guest list to seating chart
Lovely Seating is a wedding seating planner that keeps your guest list, your room and your seating chart in a single plan. Add a guest and they’re ready to seat; record a decline and they drop out of seating; move a table and every export follows. That connection is the point — most seating headaches come from keeping a spreadsheet, a sketch of the room and a printed chart in step by hand.
The tools below are grouped by what they help with. If you’re just getting started, the guide that follows walks through which feature matters at each stage of planning, and the comparison shows what’s free and what the one-time Pro upgrade adds. For the planning side — who sits where, and why — start with how to make a wedding seating chart, then wedding seating chart etiquette and wedding seating chart ideas. All our wedding seating guides (etiquette, table sizes and tricky family situations) are written by the team behind Lovely Seating.
Guest management
Your guest list is the foundation: names, households, RSVPs, meals and needs in one list that feeds every seating decision.
- ACAttendingTable 3Amelia CarterOlivia's Family
- NCAttendingTable 3Noah CarterOlivia's Family
- SBAwaitingUnassignedSophie BennettCollege Friends
- MCAttendingTable 7 · Seat 4Mia CollinsCollege Friends
- ODMaybeUnassignedOliver DavisJames's Family
- DBDeclined—Daniel BrooksWork Friends
Seating & layout
Draw the room, then seat guests by hand or with Auto-Seat — on a laptop, tablet or phone.
Exports & sharing
Turn the finished plan into print-ready charts and cards, a guest QR page, and a plan your partner or planner can open too.
What else is built in?
A few capabilities people often ask about live inside the features above. Here is where to find them.
Which feature do I need?
Wedding seating happens in roughly this order. Find the stage you’re at and start with the features that cover it — you can come back for the rest later.
- 1
Build the guest list
Start with names. Import your guest list by pasting from Excel or Google Sheets or uploading a CSV — including lists exported from The Knot, Zola or Joy — or let AI import sort a messy list into households and plus-ones. Then organise it with guest list management — households, groups, sides and plus-ones (add a +1 and they sit with their guest) in one place. Still collecting names? Read how to make a wedding guest list or start from a wedding guest list template.
- 2
Track RSVPs, meals and needs
As replies arrive, record attendance, meal choices, dietary notes and accessibility needs with RSVPs, meals & guest needs. Auto-Seat skips declined guests, and you choose whether to include those still awaiting a reply.
- 3
Lay out the tables
Draw the room in the floor plan editor: round, banquet, sweetheart and head tables, ceremony rows, the dance floor, bar and entrance — on a laptop or your phone. Enter the room’s real size in meters or feet to see what fits and check the walkways. It’s built for seating, not a CAD tool — clear enough for your venue to follow, quick enough to change in minutes.
- 4
Seat your guests
Drag guests onto tables or exact chairs with table & seat assignment, or add must-sit and keep-apart rules and let relationship-aware Auto-Seat fill the rest — it only places unassigned guests, so locked and already-seated guests stay put. Invite a partner or planner with collaboration, and lean on autosave and undo while you experiment.
- 5
Print and share
Export printable seating charts for the venue and entrance, in seven coordinated themes, make matching cards with the place card maker, and publish a Find Your Seat QR page so guests can look up their table on their phone. Our guide to the QR code wedding seating chart explains how to display it.
Prefer to start from a layout? Open the wedding seating chart template and edit it into your own plan, lay out tables with a wedding table plan template, or browse all our seating templates, place cards included.
What’s free, and what Pro adds
You can build a complete seating plan for free. Pro is a one-time $39 upgrade for when you’re ready to print, share and plan together.
| Feature | Free · $0 | Pro · $39 one-time |
|---|---|---|
| Guests and tables | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Weddings and seating plans | 1 wedding, 1 plan | 1 wedding, up to 5 plans |
| Guest list, RSVPs, meals and guest needs | ||
| Guest import (CSV upload or paste) | ||
| AI guest list import (per wedding) | 3 runs | 10 runs |
| Room size in meters or feet, real table sizes | ||
| Drag-and-drop floor plan and seat assignment | ||
| Relationship-aware Auto-Seat | ||
| Preview chart designs online | ||
| Print-ready PDF and image exports, without the watermark | ||
| Place cards and escort cards | ||
| Find Your Seat QR guest page | ||
| Invite your partner, planner and family | ||
| Version history and restore |
Planning several weddings? The Agency plan ($79/month) adds unlimited weddings and seating plans, white-label exports and priority support. Weighing other options — Zola, The Knot, Joy, WeddingWire, Canva, Top Table Planner or Planning Pod? See how we compare with each seating chart alternative.
Lovely Seating feature questions
Is Lovely Seating free to use?
Yes. The Free plan lets you build one wedding with a full seating plan: unlimited guests and tables, the drag-and-drop floor plan, guest list and RSVP tracking, CSV import and relationship-aware Auto-Seat. Print-ready exports, place cards, the Find Your Seat page, collaboration and version history are part of the one-time $39 Pro upgrade.
Can it seat my guests automatically?
Yes. Auto-Seat fills your tables using households, groups, table capacities and the relationship rules you add — must sit together, would like to sit together and keep apart. It seats guests who don’t have a place yet, explains each table, and leaves the result fully editable.
Can I import my guest list from Excel or Google Sheets?
Yes — paste rows copied from Excel or Google Sheets, or upload a CSV file. You map the columns and review possible duplicates before anything is added, or let AI import read the list for you. Native .xlsx upload isn’t supported, so export the sheet as CSV first if you’d rather upload a file.
Can I print my seating chart?
Yes, with Pro. You can design and preview your chart for free, then download print-ready PDF and image files without the Lovely Seating watermark, from a small page up to a large poster.
What is the Find Your Seat page?
A mobile page guests open by scanning a QR code — they type their name and see their table. It updates as your plan changes, and it’s included in Pro.
Is there a Lovely Seating app?
There is no native iOS or Android app — Lovely Seating runs in the browser on your phone, tablet or laptop, so there is nothing to install. The mobile editor has a table drawer and bottom sheets made for small screens, and your plan is saved to your account so you can switch devices.
Can I import my guest list from The Knot or Zola?
Yes. Export your guest list as a CSV from The Knot, Zola or Joy, then use the guided guest-list import: columns are matched automatically, plus-ones are linked and duplicates are flagged before anything is added. There is no direct sync with those sites.
How is Lovely Seating different from a wedding website’s seating chart?
Wedding websites such as The Knot, Zola and Joy include seating as one small part of a bigger toolkit. Lovely Seating does only seating: a drag-and-drop floor plan, relationship-aware Auto-Seat, place and escort cards, a Find Your Seat QR page and print-ready charts in seven themes, all fed by one guest list. You can bring your list over from those sites with a CSV export.
Do I need an account?
Yes, a free account — no credit card needed. Your plan is saved to your account in the cloud, so you can come back to it on any device.
Can my partner or wedding planner work on the same plan?
Yes. With Pro you can invite your partner, planner or family to the same seating plan, so everyone works from one up-to-date version instead of emailing files back and forth.
Bring every guest into one connected plan
Add your guests, arrange your tables, seat everyone, and export a chart your venue and guests can understand — all from one plan.
Free to start · No credit card required · Unlimited guests on the Free plan