How to use Planly Table Talk

Your seating chart lives privately in your own Google Drive, so the first step is making your personal copy.

1. Open the PDF from your Etsy purchase (Etsy → You → Purchases and reviews → Download files).
2. Click the “Make my copy” button. If you're asked, sign in to your Google account.
3. Google shows a “Copy document” screen. Click the blue “Make a copy” button.
4. Your copy opens. Rename it if you like (click the title in the top-left), e.g. “Our Seating Chart”.

The light cells at the top of SETUP feed the dashboard title, the Guest of dropdown and the starting size of your tables.

1. Open the SETUP tab.
2. In the light cells C6 to C8, enter Partner 1, Partner 2 and the Wedding date.
3. In C9, enter Seats per table: the number of seats at most of your tables (8 to start). Table 1 to Table 15 on TABLES use this number.
4. Check the DASHBOARD title: it now reads “Seating for” followed by your names, with the wedding date underneath.
5. Read the short tip in B11 before moving on.

The lists to the right on SETUP fill the dropdowns on the other tabs. The defaults work well, so change only what you need.

1. Meal options (E6 to E11): Beef, Chicken, Fish, Vegetarian, Vegan and Kids meal. Change them to match your caterer's menu. These six names also become the meal count columns on TABLES.
2. Guest of (G6 to G8): this list builds itself from your two names plus “Both”.
3. Guest groups (I6 to I13): Family, Friends, Work, Neighbors, Plus-one and Other, with room for two more.
4. Table shapes (K6 to K11): Round, Long, Square, Head table, Sweetheart and Kids table.

GUEST LIST holds 300 people. The most important rule: one row per person. Plus-ones and kids get their own row, so every seat and every meal is counted.

1. Type each Guest name, one person per row. For a plus-one whose name you don't know yet, a placeholder like “Guest of Sam Lee” works.
2. Give everyone on one invitation the same Party / household (e.g. “The Hayes family”) so families are easy to keep together.
3. Pick Guest of (whose side) and a Group.
4. Set RSVP to Attending, Declined or Awaiting as replies come in. Attending turns green and declined guests are greyed out.
5. Choose each guest's Meal and add any Dietary notes.
6. Use Seating notes for anything that matters when you seat people, like “near the exit”, “needs a high chair” or “keep away from the speakers”.
7. Check the cards at the top: Guests, Attending, Seated, Need a seat and Declined.

TABLES comes with a Head table (10 seats) and Table 1 to Table 15, each using the seats per table from SETUP. Change them to match your venue's floor plan.

1. Rename tables in the Table column if you like (e.g. “Table 1: College friends” or “Sweetheart”). These names fill the Table dropdown on GUEST LIST.
2. Pick a Shape for each table from the dropdown.
3. Check Seats. Table 1 to Table 15 follow Seats per table on SETUP, so changing C9 there resizes them all at once. Type a different number to change just one table.
4. Need more tables? Add a name, shape and seat count in the empty rows below. Up to 60 tables fit.
5. Delete the names of any tables you won't use, so they don't count toward your total seats.

Planly Table Talk · Tables with meal counts

You pick a table for each guest on GUEST LIST, and TABLES does all the counting.

1. On GUEST LIST, pick a table in each guest's Table column. The dropdown lists every table on TABLES.
2. Guests without a table are highlighted in pink, unless they declined.
3. Go to TABLES. Seated counts each table's guests, and Open shows the seats still free. Open turns green when a table is exactly full and pink if it's over.
4. Who's sitting here lists the names at each table, so you can check who's next to whom.
5. Check the Still need a table list on the right of TABLES. It lists every guest who hasn't declined and has no table yet. When it says “Everyone has a seat”, you're done.
6. Watch the cards at the top of TABLES: Tables, Total seats, Seated, Open seats and Over capacity.

Most caterers want to know how many of each meal goes to each table. TABLES has that ready for you.

1. On TABLES, look at the columns under “Meal counts for your caterer”, to the right of Who's sitting here.
2. Each column is one of your meal options, and each row shows how many guests at that table chose it.
3. Guests with no Meal picked aren't counted, so filter GUEST LIST for blank meals and follow up before sending the numbers.
4. The Meal choices chart on DASHBOARD shows the total for each meal across the whole wedding.

SEATING PLAN builds a card for every table, 4 cards per row. There's nothing to type here.

1. Each card shows the table name, “6 of 8 seats taken” and the guests at that table, written as “Name · Meal” so servers know who gets what.
2. Declined guests are left off, and so are tables with no name.
3. Each card lists up to 12 guests.
4. To print, go to File → Print. Choose Current sheet, set Scale to Fit to width, then print or save as PDF for your venue and caterer.

Planly Table Talk · Printable seating plan

The dashboard pulls everything together. There's nothing to type here.

1. The cards show Guests, Attending, Seated, Need a seat, Tables and Open seats.
2. Seats by table shows seated and open seats for each table, stacked so you can spot gaps. It shows your first 20 tables.
3. Meal choices shows how many guests picked each meal.
4. Guests by side shows how many guests are each partner's or Both.
5. RSVPs shows Attending, Awaiting and Declined.

Planly Table Talk · Seating dashboard