Start arranging your seating plan early. You can start doing this before all your RSVP's have been received. You know that most of your close friends and family wiill most likely be attending, even if they haven’t formally replied yet.

To begin creating your arrangement, get a general idea from your venue how the tables will be arranged in the room. Determine whether you’ll be using round or long tables or a mixture of both, and work out how many people you can sit at each table.

Arranging the chart can take a long time and might involve numerous revisions. Many people cut up pieces of paper for each guest and table and use these to try out different layouts. Thankfully, over the last few years software (web-based, for download or even Excel spreadsheets) has become available to make the task simpler. Leading up to the big day, this will not only save hours of your time, but will also reduce the stress, by simplifying last minute changes!