Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Poster Board Saves The Day

I have been using Perfect Table Plan to keep track of our RSVP's and I have been loving it. I was able to import our guest list and keep track of their responses with ease. Meal choices, guests, and "who invited them?!" were all included in the handy chart. When it finally came time to start seating people, things got a little trickier. Being able to drag and drop was nice enough and the auto-assign function was a great start. Maybe it was the size of my room or my long rather than round tables, but I was starting to get frustrated.

I fell back on some skills that I picked up when I planned non-profit fundraisers. Whom was sitting with whom was very important and the guest list was changing all the time. The easiest way to plan it out was a big piece of poster board and a post-it note for every guest. I would then hang it up in my cubicle and stare at it until I found the perfect arrangement. Fortunately, I spent the weekend up at the lake rather than in my cubicle, but the trick worked just the same.


Everyone found a seat. This also helped me come up with my best idea yet... the kids table! Mr. Peacock's mom is paying for a babysitter for all of our neices and nephews. I had no idea how I was going to get all six of them at the same table, with the babysitter and their parents- most of whom are in the wedding party. I was never planning on doing a traditional head table with just the wedding party and no dates. We loved the idea of sitting with our immediate family, but our families combined equalled 19 adults, 6 kids and a partridge in a pair tree. Adding a kids table meant that Mr. Peacock and I could sit with our siblings, our parents and grandparents. It also meant that all the adults could have a fun time, leaving the work to the babysitter. Hurray!

How did you figure out your seating plan?

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