For UK weddings
A wedding seating plan guests can search
A drag-and-drop wedding table planner that pulls in your RSVP guests automatically. Configure the tables, seat your guests, and let them find their own seat on the day.
What's included
Drag and drop
Drag guests from your RSVP list to any table. Reassign in seconds when plans change.
RSVPs flow in automatically
Every confirmed RSVP appears in the guest list ready to seat. No duplicate data entry.
Any table shape or size
Round, long or square, with any number of seats. Add a dance floor, or mark a head or top table.
Top table support
Single top table, sweetheart table or long estate. Pick what fits your wedding rather than what fits the software.
Guests find their own seat
On the day, your wedding page lets guests search their name to find their table. No one hovers over the plan squinting.
Print-ready view
Open a print-ready view of the finished plan to use as a welcome sign or hand to your venue.
How the seating plan comes together
01
Add your tables
Pick shape, size and position, in any combination. Drop in a head or top table.
02
Drag guests into seats
Your RSVP guests appear automatically. Drag them to tables, and shuffle in seconds when plans change.
03
Publish to your wedding site
Guests type their name on your wedding page to find their seat. You can export a printed plan too.
Inside the planner
Your guest list is populated the moment each RSVP comes in. Drag names onto tables, reshape seats or rearrange the whole room, and the layout updates live as you go. It replaces the spreadsheet, the index cards and the late-night PowerPoint diagram.
Meal choices sit next to each guest, and anyone who flagged a dietary follow-up shows up with a marker so you don’t lose track across tables. A CSV export goes to your caterer. A print-ready view goes on the welcome easel.
UK seating etiquette: who sits where?
The top table
UK wedding tradition puts the couple in the middle of a long top table, flanked by the parents, best man, chief bridesmaid and sometimes grandparents. The typical order (left to right, facing the room) is: chief bridesmaid, groom's father, bride's mother, groom, bride, bride's father, groom's mother, best man.
Sweetheart tables
A popular modern alternative is a sweetheart table: just the couple at a small table of their own, with parents and wedding party seated with friends at nearby round tables. It's less formal, and everyone gets to chat with people they chose.
Family-style long tables
If your venue has long estate tables, seating the whole wedding party together with parents and immediate family works well. It keeps the structure of a top table without the parade-on-a-stage feeling, and Ode supports the layout out of the box.
Kids and teenagers
Small children usually sit next to a parent. Older kids and teens often do best on a dedicated younger table; put a confident older cousin at the head and let them run it. Ode lets you tag guests by age bracket so these tables come together naturally.
Divorced parents
Either seat them at opposite ends of a long top table (the standard approach), or skip the top table entirely and seat each parent at their own table with their partner and friends. The second option is usually the kinder one, and Ode doesn't force tradition on you.
More of what Ode does
Wedding website builder
Build your wedding website in an evening.
ExploreWedding RSVPs
Collect replies and meal choices online.
ExploreWedding photo sharing
A QR code photo album for your guests.
ExploreWedding guestbook
Messages and well-wishes from your phone.
ExploreFree wedding website
The full builder, genuinely free.
ExploreSeating plan questions
Set up your page this evening
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