Planner · Events
Turn a guest list and a set of rules into a table plan that works
Add tables, list guests with their groups and your keep-together or keep-apart rules, and see a seat-by-seat plan instantly. The view marks conflicts, scores the layout and suggests swaps you can print or share — everything runs in your browser.
Presets
load exampleOverwrites current tables, guests and rules. Preset values are typical, not one venue's spec.
Tables
0 tablesGuests
0 guestsRules & options
Table plan
SVG updates with your rulesSeat assignments
| Table | Seat | Guest | Group | Tags |
|---|
Conflicts & score breakdown
What to fix before you print
Export & share
CSV lists every seat; JSON contains the full state. The share link encodes your plan in the URL hash.
How the numbers are worked out
Every figure below is arithmetic you can check by hand. Nothing is fetched from a server.
Placement score
For each guest, score each table with free seats as: +10 per must-sit-with partner already there, −20 per must-sit-apart partner already there, +3 per same-group guest already there when keep-groups-together is on, −1 per extra table the group already spans (soft spread). Ties break by most free seats, then table order. Guests are processed most-constrained first.
Total score & band
Total score sums the same +10/−20/+3 over every co-located pair in the finished plan. Bands: ≥ 30 Excellent, ≥ 10 Good, ≥ 0 Fair, < 0 Needs work; any unresolved apart pair or unassigned guest caps the band at Needs work regardless of points.
Improvement passes
After the greedy pass, 3 sweeps test every cross-table swap — recompute total score, keep the swap only when it raises the score. Seeded tie-order (hash of guest name + seed) makes results reproducible; Shuffle groups increments the seed deliberately.
Capacity & occupancy
Total seats = sum of table seats. Occupancy = assigned ÷ seats. Conflict detection counts apart pairs on the same table, guests without a seat, tables under 50% full or over capacity, groups split across 3+ tables, and a head table with more guests than seats.
What this is not: a heuristic seating plan, not a formal optimisation; review it, and expect to move a few people by hand.
Questions
How does the seating algorithm decide who sits where?
Guests are ordered by constraint count (most constrained first), then placed greedily into the highest-scoring table — +10 for each must-sit-with already there, −20 for each must-sit-apart, +3 for the same group when keep-groups-together is on — and then 2 to 3 passes try every pairwise swap that raises the total score.
What happens when two guests must sit apart?
The planner penalises putting them on the same table and flags any table where an apart pair still sits together as an unresolved conflict. The recommendations then name the exact swap that would resolve it.
How many guests fit at a round versus a rectangular table?
You set the seat count yourself — round tables are usually 6 to 10, rectangular tables 6 to 12 (3 to 6 per side). The tool treats both as capacity numbers and draws seats evenly around or along the table so you can see at a glance whether a table will feel crowded.
Can I print the table plan and share it?
Yes. Use Print for a clean chart with every table and seat, Export CSV for a spreadsheet, or Copy share link — the link encodes the tables, guests and rules in the URL hash so anyone with the link sees the same plan.
Tools that pair with this one
Same desk, different job. All free, all in the browser.