How we draw a table plan for seventy guests

Every table plan we draw starts with the venue’s floor plan, not the guest list. Once the tables, the dance floor and the doors are drawn to scale, the guests are the easy part.

We seat families first, then friends by how they know each other, and leave the top table until the end. Two spare seats are worth keeping: someone always brings a partner at the last minute.

The plan goes to the caterer with every meal note marked, and to the venue a week before so the tables are laid the right way round.