Why Post-It Notes Will Never Be Obsolete

Friend R. recently pointed me to this idea for planning seating at your wedding, which I think is an excellent tip, especially for all you visual people out there.  R. had 250 guests at her weddding, and so determining seating for her group was quite a task.  Overwhelmed, R. turned to a friend in fundraising, who recommended using pink and blue post-it notes to plan the seating.  Apparently this technique is quite popular for planning benefits and fundraisers, and it makes total sense.  With so many guests, I think it was the perfect approach- and it's the kind of thing that literally anyone can do.  Here's how it worked:

Here's what she did:

Step 1:  R. blew up an image of the room layout which had been provided by her venue, and had it printed on large paper.

Step 2:  R. cut out smaller pieces of paper in the shape and size of the tables in her layout. 

Step 3:  Using post-it notes in pink (with ladies' names on them) and blue (with the men's names), R. started by affixing post-it notes to the "tables."  She played with varying combinations until she had her guests all "seated" into the right groups.

Step 4:  R. Then put the tables onto the big sheet of paper in different configuations, until the locations of various tables worked perfectly.  R. made sure to take into account things like the location of the bar and band, the location of her family members, and so forth.  In her case, she tried to keep generations together, and family members together.   Of course, there are many ways to seat people, but this worked for her group!

Step 5:  When all was said and done, R. assigned the table numbers based on the room layout. 

R. says the biggest challenge in her planning was dealing with all of the different stakeholders in the process- mothers, in-laws, friends, fiances- they all had opinions and she knew she could never make everyone 100% happy.  So at the end of the day, she did what all smart brides do- she did her best and then cut herself some slack!

What other tips do you love for figuring out tables and seating?

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