Seating Chart

A seating chart CANT be made until you have your final headcount in. It’s one of those pesky last minute tasks that can only be done once all of your rsvps have been done. It’s likely why we see a lot of handwritten ones! Or home printed. This is one thing you just have to wait on, whoever gave you that timeline is wrong. Stores with printing capabilities like Kinkos or Staples are a good resource for last minute printing .

You can always make a prospective seating chart and then move people around as you start getting your RSVP's in. WW has a tool for seating charts, easy to use. I'm not getting married until October 2022 and already have a seating chart made, if I get declines I can move people around.

Hi Megan!
I fully agree with the 1st poster.Plus:
* "because I’m aware that half of them will not be able to attend": 1) You shouldn't assume that half of them won't attend. You never know. 2) When you're making the seating chart, you're doing it by assuming that everyone will attend.

* "and not to mention, sending out the invites in December leaves me little to no time to have a proper headcount",: you can send them before if you think you'll need more than 2 months. Some couples send theirs when their wedding is 3/3,5 months away. There's NOTHING WRONG with this.

You don't finalize the seating arrangements until the replies come in but you can work on matching compatible tabl mates. I believe rsvpify.com has the option on their site but if not then get a poster board and Post It note strips. Draw however many tables you have. Each guest name goes on a strip that you place at the tables so you are able to move them around as needed. When replies come in, you eliminate all the no's. The ones you are left with will be written on tent cards that your will pick up.

Do not send invites prior to 6-8 weeks. Replies will be due at 3-4 weeks. It will take roughly 2 days for you and fiance to track down anyone who forgot to reply.

We made up our seating chart the week of the wedding. The venue offered to laminate it for us, which was great.

You can't do your seating chart until you have your final count, as PPs have said. Instead of relying on what people around you say, I highly recommend using WW's or the Knot's timeline, or a wedding planning book. They are more realistic and tuned in to current situations.

3 months before the wedding, we just started planning. Haha.

As everyone else said, you have to wait for the RSVPs to make the seating chart. I made ours 10 days before the wedding. We assigned tables, not seats which is a little easier (you only need assigned seats if you have a plated dinner). I printed ours on our home printer and it turned out beautiful. I had designed and prepared everything before, so I only had to fill in the Namen, print it and Gliederung everything on a big foam board.
However, you could also order and print on a foam board or something similar and order online. I did that with our welcome sign and it took about a week for printing and delivery. Even safer is going to a local print store.

When does your caterer need the final headcount? That determines your RSVP deadline but should still give you enough time to finalize your seating chart.

Ask your venue. They also might have ideas, input, boards they use.

If you do assigned seats and escort cards, many brides have good experiences with the cards from avery. You can print on them on your homeprinter.