Seating charts for your event

Almost everything is ready. The caterer is confirmed, the entertainment is booked, the party is literally tomorrow. And then it hits you: a hundred people still need to be placed at tables. What makes a good seated dinner work? Good company, mostly. Every one of your guests deserves to sit at a table that suits them. You need to think about age groups, old friendships, shared interests, who tells the best jokes, who actually wants to talk to whom. And then there is the other side — is there an awkward history between two guests, is anyone quietly done with that one cousin in the family?

Seating charts are the point where event planning stops being a spreadsheet and starts being diplomacy. You need to remember who is pregnant, who stopped speaking to whom last Easter, and where to put the kids' table so the parents can actually eat a meal.

Until today, most of us did this in Excel, on a notepad, or with sticky notes on the kitchen table. We built something better.

Seating in Melda

You drag guests from the guest list onto a table and arrange them however you want. You always see who has not been seated yet. Plus-ones get auto-placed at the same table, along with kids if applicable. If you want a separate kids' table and an adult table, moving a guest takes one drag. You can also split a couple across two tables if that is what the night calls for.

Try it — drag a guest to a table.

Want to try with your own guest list? Set up your own event in 2 minutes →

Guests can pick their own table

You can also skip the hand-assignment entirely and let guests pick their own table. Flip on self-selection in the event settings, set a deadline, and guests choose a table the moment they RSVP. You see in real time who has picked a table and who is still missing.

When self-selection is on, your guests get a clean table picker right on their RSVP page. They see which tables have room and pick their spot.

Pick a table for yourself and your plus-one.

Want your guests to pick their own seats? Create an event →

A few more details

The seating chart is built to handle any kind of event, from small confirmations to large staff galas.

• Drag from the sidebar. Every guest who has RSVP'd shows up in the list automatically. Drop individuals onto a table or move a whole party at once.
• Dietary needs on the chip. Small colored dots next to each guest's name show vegan, gluten-free, nut allergy, and other dietary needs — straight from the RSVP.
• Five table shapes. Round tables, long banquet tables, and cocktail high-tops for any event — and for weddings, an honor table for the wedding party and close family, plus a dedicated sweetheart table for the couple themselves.
• Lock the tables that should stay off the picker. Some tables are reserved: the head table, the leadership table, the close-family table. Locked tables are hidden from the guest picker and you assign them by hand.
• Bulk-create tables. Enter a count, capacity, and shape, and Melda creates them instantly.
• Print or export. A wall chart for the entrance, a table sign for each table, an alphabetical guest list, and an Excel export if you want to keep working in a spreadsheet.

More about seating

Seating is new in Melda but it is also a foundational piece of what we are building: event management that thinks about things the way they actually work, for real weddings, confirmations, and staff galas. Read more here.

But enough reading. Create an event right now and learn this properly.