← Event seating chart optimizer
The plan is done, the place cards are half written, and then two guests cancel and two more say yes. Re-running a seating search from scratch can shuffle a third of the room, and every moved guest is a card to reprint and a table to re-check. The better move is to re-seat: keep everyone where they are unless a change is worth it.
Open the free seating chart optimizer
1. Export the current plan. Download the plan CSV (Table, Guest, ...) before you change anything.
2. Edit the guest list. Delete the drop-outs, add the new guests, and give a plus-one the same party name as their host. Remove wishes that mention people who left.
3. Paste the old CSV and re-seat. Each returning guest is tied to their old table, so they move only when the gain beats the cost. Pick low, medium or high stickiness.
4. Read the moved list. The plan names every guest who changed table, from where to where, plus who was added and who dropped.
The sample list is 24 invented guests at 3 tables of eight, with 8 wishes (a family kept together, a never-together pair, friends who want to sit together and two pins). Joy Okafor and Carlos Mendes then drop out, and Hana and Milo Ortiz are added as one party. That leaves 22 returning guests.
| Approach | Returning guests moved | Wishes met |
|---|---|---|
| Fresh optimized run | 9 of 22 | 7 of 7 |
| Re-seat (medium stickiness) | 1 of 22 | 7 of 7 |
Both meet every remaining wish with eight guests at each table. The difference is that the fresh run is free to reshuffle among equally good plans, and the re-seat is not.
It keeps tables, not seats within a table, and it knows only the wishes you typed. A new guest who needs step-free access, or a new feud, must be typed in as a wish. If a never-together rule or a full table forces a move, it moves, whatever the stickiness. It is a starting point for you and your planner, not a promise that every guest will be happy.
Paste last time's plan CSV into the late-RSVP box, update the guest list, and re-seat. Each returning guest is tied to their old table, so the optimizer moves a guest only when it gains more than the cost of moving them. Pins and never-together rules still win.
Yes. Choose high stickiness and a guest leaves their table only when a never-together rule or a full table forces it. The plan lists every guest who moved, with the old and new table, so you can tell them before the cards are printed.
Give them the same party name as their host. A party is seated together, so the new guest goes to the host's table if there is a seat, and the plan flags the party if it had to split.
Related: the general wedding seating chart guide, the divorced parents guide, the bounce house rental calculator and the container load planner.