Seating guests

Seat guests at tables

On the Floor plan screen, drag a name from the guest list onto a table or chair, tap an empty chair to pick someone, or use a table's Add guest. You can also seat people from Guests or Table list with the Assign menu. Full tables ask before going over capacity, and Auto-Seat can seat everyone left.

Choose exact seats, not just tables

To give someone a specific chair, open Floor plan and drag their name from the guest list onto that chair, or tap an empty chair and choose them from Seat a guest here. Their details then show the seat, like Seat 3. Guests seated at a table without a chair simply fill the free chairs in order.

Move or swap seated guests

To move a seated guest, open Floor plan and drag their chair to an empty chair or another table. Drop them on someone else's chair and you'll be asked Swap seats? Click Swap to trade places. You can also use the Assign menu. Locked guests can't be moved or swapped until you unlock them.

Lock a guest's seat

Open the guest's details and, under Seating, click the lock button next to their table. The toast says Seat locked. A locked guest can't be dragged to another chair, moved to another table or swapped with someone else until you unlock them. Auto-Seat never moves seated guests anyway, so the lock mostly protects against slips while you rearrange by hand.

How Auto-Seat works

Auto-Seat fills your tables with guests who don't have a seat yet, in one click. It seats Attending and Maybe guests (offering to include unreplied ones), keeps households and must-sit pairs together, keeps keep-apart guests apart and matches seating needs. It never moves anyone already seated, and Undo auto-seat reverses the whole run.

Keep guests together or apart

Open a guest's details and use Relationships to add Must sit with, Would like to sit with or Keep apart from. Households with Keep this household at the same table ticked always sit together. Auto-Seat follows every rule, and the floor plan flags keep-apart guests seated together. See all rules at Guests → ⋯ → Seating rules.

Undo Auto-Seat and re-run it

Click Undo auto-seat in the Here's how I seated everyone summary to reverse the whole run, or press Cmd+Z or Ctrl+Z afterwards. Running Auto-Seat again only seats guests who still have no table. To start completely fresh, click Unassign all first, then Auto-seat. A Before auto-seat version is also saved each time.

Seating tips that make the day easier

Work in this order: confirm RSVPs, set households and keep-apart rules, place the head table and family by hand, then let Auto-Seat fill the rest and fine-tune. Seat guests near people they know, keep elderly guests away from speakers, and give vendors their own table. Leave a spare seat or two for last-minute changes.