Creating a wedding seating plan can be a dreaded task, often left until the last minute. In fact searches for the question ‘how to do a wedding seating plan?’ have increased by 75% in the last 12 months. Keeping everyone happy within the given space of the venue takes meticulous planning. But what if you could use AI to organise your seating plan?
Wedding planning experts at Ginger Ray have used the Code Interpreter feature of ChatGPT to reveal which prompts you should use to get AI to create the perfect seating plan for your wedding.
I used AI to create my wedding seating plan
Jess Martin, a wedding planning expert at Ginger Ray said:“Anyone who has planned a wedding has, at some point wished that they could wave a magic wand to create the perfect seating plan. We’ve done the hard work so you can use this tried and tested method, to get AI to do it for you.”
- Categorise your guest list
Start by putting your guest list into a table in Excel or Google Sheets. You’ll want to include columns for guest names, their relationship to you and your partner, category, vibe, ‘must sit next to’ and ‘can’t sit next to’.
In the ‘relationship to the couple’ column, you should add labels like Mother of the Bride, Groomsman, Bride’s colleague or Groom’s family friend. Just list how you know each guest or their role.
Then consider what category your guests fit into. Are they part of the wedding party, are they family members, uni friends or work friends? Assign a category for each guest.
You want everyone at your wedding to have a great time, so beyond their role on the day and your relationship, consider their personality and vibe. Whether they are a VIP member of the wedding party like the maid of honour or father of the bride, a party person who might be popping bottles all night or a great aunt who might require a tamer family-friendly environment, assign your guests a vibe.
Finally, make a note of who your guests absolutely can’t or must sit next to. You may want to sit kids next to their parents so make a note of who people must sit next to in the relevant column. Equally, you may have guests who shouldn’t be sitting near each other so note this down. Now download your guest list as a CSV file.
- Feed the list into Chat GPT
AI is great but you need to understand which prompts will get you the desired outcome for your wedding seating plan. The good news is we’ve done the hard work for you.
After setting up an account on ChatGPT, ensuring you use the paid version of Code Interpreter, enter the following prompt into the AI, ensuring that all details are changed to match the specifics of your wedding.
Imagine you are planning a wedding. Create a seating plan for the following wedding guests grouping people in the same category and vibe on the same table where possible. The tables seat 10 people. You must ensure that family-friendly and party vibes aren’t seated together where possible. Please list those that must sit next to each other consecutively.
Following this, upload the CSV file of your guest list into AI and press enter.
- Refine the seating plan
Chat GPT should now group your guest list into tables based on the above prompt. However, AI isn’t a foolproof method and you might need to check through the list to ensure you are happy with the layout of guests.
You may need to ask it to adjust the number of guests at each table so that they are more equal or relax some of the constraints of your categories who can’t sit together.
The best part is that if any tweaks need making you can just enter an action as a subsequent chat. For example, if a guest is no longer coming, ask Chat GPT to rearrange the seating plan without that person. If you save the chat, this can be done right until the last moment.
- Make the plan visual
Take the seating plan provided by AI and plot it out onto the tables based on where they will be situated in the venue. You can then make final tweaks based on accessibility requirements or specific needs. Print your wedding seating plan to display at your venue so your guests can find their seats easily. Or DIY your own acrylic seating plan. Assigning your tables a number or name is essential and an opportunity to get creative.
Meg Packer, 28, from Leeds is getting married to her partner Kaya in November and used the above method to create her seating plan. She said:
“Doing the seating plan for our wedding was definitely something I was putting off. Among my guests, there are tricky family dynamics, younger children in attendance, as well as friends whom we didn’t give a plus one, so it really felt like an impossible task.
“However, using the AI prompts I was able to categorise my guests, so it meant that there were no children sitting alone while also placing my single friends next to people they knew. Once the initial list was organised it was a really simple process.
“As my guest list is only 72 people, and the tables were rectangular seating 8 people it did take a couple of tries to prompt ChatGPT to reshuffle my guests to something I was happy with. It wasn’t possible to seat everyone who shared the same vibe together or create exactly even tables due to numbers but the finetuning process was far simpler than if I had tried to do it without.
“What I love about using this method to plan my wedding seating plan is the ability to return to the project and reshuffle the plan should we have any last-minute changes to the guest list. With a couple of months left until the wedding, having this flexibility without having to start from scratch is amazing.”
However you decide to plan your wedding seating plan, Ginger Rayhave everything you need to help your guests find their seats at your reception including seating plan kits and table numbers.
