Man, I love CAD! I drafted this seating plan this morning and saved it as a pdf to send to Pilar at the Three West Club. No, this isn’t crazy. This is how I like to roll. This is true Miss Snow Pea style. When the technology is at your fingertips, how can you resist! What I love about the Ballroom is that no matter what angle guests are sitting, they won’t feel like one table had priority over the other.
Pilar and I went over the final head count, seating arrangements and other little details. After I received some feedback from her as to how the room should be arranged, I went home and finalized the seating plan.
I took my guest list on Excel and on a new sheet, I broke the guests down into tables. One thing I really liked was that I had a choice of 8, 10 and 12 person tables. That was very helpful for those guests you just aren’t sure where to put.
When planning the layout of the room, the thought was this: put our rowdy friends near the band and the “older people” away from the band and air vents. Put the largest tables in the back along the wall and the smaller tables up front. Put the kids where they can get to the bathroom easily and again, put our friends closest to the bar! 
Like the wedding programs, this was another task that you can start early, but not complete until the end. 4 guests have declined since the RSVP date, so I had to update the list again this week. Now all I have to do is number the place cards. I made the place cards early for all our invited guests, so I just took out the guests that declined and placed them in alphabetical order before handing them over to the event manager.
On to my next task!
I love CAD, too! I drafted my seating arrangement since I’m the type who likes to know the exact placment of things. 
Hehe, I’m feeling a little less dorky and neurotic knowing there’s other brides out there using CAD for other than work purposes! CAD is a wonderful wonderful program…
I am in awe of your organization, Miss Snow Pea!
I just wanted to share a little idea I had about how to place guests in the room: it’s thoughtful to seat your “rowdy” guests near the bar, but it just may reduce your open bar tab a smidge if you seat them as far as possible from the bar! Instead, seat the guests who are not likely to drink up a storm near the bar. I know, I know, I’m sneaky that way using marketing psych for guest placement to reduce my bills.
rolling process oriented style yo!
Yeah, I’m big into Visio. I did a process flow of the invitation addressing/stuffing/stamping process.
Mircostation
Also it’s OK to leave an empty seat at a table. It facilitates mingling.
how cute that the sweatheart table looks like a happy face! i’m still debating btwn a SH table or a regular wedding party head table. how did you decide?
tofu, i wanted a sweetheart’s table because i wanted my wedding party to be able to sit with people that they know and their sig figs too. they’ll have more fun that way.
Tofu,
I thought it best that our bridal party sit with their friends and SO’s. They will enjoy it better. Not to mention, for the most part, Mr. SP and I will be up and about greeting people and partying that it would seem pointless to leave our bridal party alone at the table.
After all our pre-planning, last minute changes meant the final seating chart was done on post-it notes on a closet door. That reminds me: how do I thank the groom’s cousin’s girlfriend for backing out at the last minute, thereby making the seating vastly easier? Surely Hallmark makes a card for that.
Although I was surprised that some people backed out at the last minute, it kinda helped with the seating and allowing other dates to attend, etc. Ehh, don’t care now. I’d be miffed though if you paid for them and then they didn’t show.
i love seeing stuff like this because it makes me feel so much better about myself. lol. thanks for making me feel normal miss snow pea!
is your cake table at the entrance to the room? i’m a little nervous about that. i’d be scared someone would bump into it, mainly because i would be that someone.
No, Tea, Thank YOU for making me feel normal that other brides do this! haha The cake table is at the entrance. I was nervous too but from what I have seen in photos, there should be plenty of room. I would prefer it there than behind us so atleast it can be seen if no one eats it kekeke
I had the AutoCAD and Excel combo too since we did specific seats for parent’s tables, wedding party and sweetheart tables and general table seating for the rest of the guests. The coordinator was in awe/shock/amazement of my dorkiness, but it made it so much easier to edit and visualize for me. I also had to include columns for each person’s meal and totals for each choice of meals for each table so they knew how many people are getting each when they served.
Other than guests who seated themselves at whatever table because they just did whatever, changing meal totals, leaving random people thrown together, and throwing a huge wrench in it all, I think it worked out:) Never would have had a backup plan for that situation!
We had tables that could fit 8 or 9 — then one table that could fit 10, which did give us some flexibility - would have been nice to have more bigger tables. But since we’ve only got ~120 coming, we’ve got more flexibility in seating, so we have anywhere from 7-9 people at most of the tables, and then 1 table of 10.
We’re having a sweetheart table too, then our attendants & their s/o’s will sit together at a table near us.
We tried to consider some of those things when deciding where in the room to have certain people sit. We have the honor table & parent tables near us, the parents’ friends/family near their tables, and then our friends are in the back near eachother & near the bar — we’re paying a flat rate per person for open bar, and we want our friends to get our money’s worth on that alcohol! :-p
try Seating Arrangement. it’s a free software i found at http://www.seatingarrangement.com/ .
i rate it 9/10
LMK
Brilliant Aimee. Thank you for the software tip.
Mrs. Snow Pea, New York
Age and Occupation: 26, Architectural Engineer and student
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Web Designer
Engagement Date: July 4, 2005
Wedding Date: August 18, 2007
About Me: I am a DIY gal. From cooking, home improvements to wedding. Mr. Snow Pea and I met in college, and since then we've been like peas and carrots! Love cooking, traveling, and fishing.
Ohhh, I really wish we had the option of 8/10/12 person tables! That would solve some of our problems, heh heh… =/