Seating Chart: alphabetical or by table?

Alphabetical is much easier.

Our venue makes us do alphabetical to make it easier for guests to find their names and move quickly

Question to you and to this thread though, do you list each person's name alphabetically? I'm struggling with the guest that are couples but have different last names. They will be at the same table but I'm wondering if I really need to put each person separately by their last name alphabetically.... Let me know what your choice is!

View Quoted Comment OP,
Alphabetical is so much faster to find your name in. It's much less obvious where to even begin to look if you do it by table.

Emily, I would list each person individually if you have the room to do so. Seems easier with the last name differences.

View Quoted Comment Listing them separately alphabetically is fine. I’ve been listed separately plenty of times before I married my husband and found my place just fine, except when he was in the wedding party and no one had told either of us that we’d be sitting at a special wedding party & SOs table.


With as many guests as you have, I’d set the seating charts up in a very prominent spaces so people can stop throughout cocktail hour to find their table. We did our chart by table, since we had table names and ~70 guests, and had our seating chart in a pretty central spot during cocktail hour and everyone found their seats fine.

Do not list the names by table, it will take too long for guests to read every table section to find their name. For my table seating chart, I listed every name alphabetically, even if the guest shared a last name with their spouse.

Alphabetical. I had same amount of guests and it just goes much smoother that way

Definitely alphabetical. That's 1 of the main reasons I prefer escort cards. Walk over, search in alphabetical order, and grab it and walk away.

We are also expecting 250 and doing alphabetical.
I was at a wedding at my venue last weekend and I noticed they had the seating chart set out in the cocktail hour space and then moved it to outside the reception space before us guests moved there. I thought this was helpful as it allowed everyone to check their table # before even getting to the reception space.

I think the alphabetical chart is very nice. i regret doing place cards instead of this

I’m going to do both. List them by table and in alphabetical order.

I would go alphabetical, with a table number next to each person's name. That way, they can find their name quickly and easily, and know exactly where they should be. That's what I'm doing.