Wedding table calculator
Type your guest count and pick a table to see how many you need, with chairs, tablecloths and centrepieces. With 10 at the top table, 100 guests need 12 round tables of 8, or 9 rounds of 10.
Tables by guest count
| Guests | 5ft rounds (8) | 6ft rounds (10) | 6ft trestles (6) | Tablecloths (rounds of 8) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 10 |
| 75 | 9 | 7 | 11 | 14 |
| 80 | 9 | 7 | 12 | 14 |
| 100 | 12 | 9 | 15 | 17 |
| 120 | 14 | 11 | 19 | 19 |
| 150 | 18 | 14 | 24 | 23 |
| 200 | 24 | 19 | 32 | 29 |
| 250 | 30 | 24 | 40 | 35 |
The top table seats 10, so the guest tables hold everyone else, rounded up to whole tables. Tablecloths cover every guest table, the top table, and four more for the cake, the cards and gifts, the table plan and a spare.
How the sum works
Take your top table away from the guest count, divide what's left by the seats per table, and round up. For 100 guests with a top table of 10, that's 90 guests at tables of 8: 11.25, so 12 tables. The last table has 6 spare seats, which is useful. Late additions, a plus-one who appears in May, a highchair: they all need a space somewhere.
If you'd rather not have a top table, the couple sit at a guest table and the sum is simply guests ÷ seats. 100 guests at rounds of 8 is 13 tables.
Use your day guest count for this, the people sitting down to the wedding breakfast. Evening guests don't need a seat each, though it helps to keep a few chairs round the edge of the room for anyone who wants to sit out a song.
Round tables or long tables?
Most UK venues hire out 5ft rounds (about 1.5 m across) that seat 8, and 6ft rounds (about 1.8 m) that seat 10. Rounds are sociable, since everyone can talk across the table, and they make a seating plan easy to read. Ten at a 6ft round fills it right up, so check the venue's chairs are not too wide.
6ft trestles seat 6, three down each side. Push them end to end into long rows, the way barns and village halls often lay them out, and you lose no seats where they join. Long rows feel like a feast and fit narrow rooms well. They need more tables for the same guests (15 trestles for 90 guests against 12 rounds), but each run counts as one table on your table plan.
You can mix them. A common barn layout is long rows down the middle with rounds near the dance floor, or rounds for families and a long table for the friends who'll be loudest.
What changes the answer
- Children. Small children still take a chair. A children's table is a nice idea for ages five to twelve; toddlers usually sit with their parents, plus a highchair.
- Pillars and awkward corners. A table may not fit where the sum says it should. Lay the room out before you commit to a table count with the caterer.
- A buffet or food stations. Same number of tables, but the room needs space for the queue.
- Households and friendship groups. A family of six and a group of nine don't split neatly into eights. Expect one or two more tables than the minimum once the seating plan is done.
Why the room needs more than the tables
The figures in this calculator are roomier than the old "1 m² per guest" rule, and that's on purpose. That rule only covers tables and chairs. A real wedding also has a top table, a dance floor with a walkway round it, a DJ, a bar and its queue, and usually a cake table, gifts table and photo booth. The tables are less than half the floor.
The numbers are calibrated so the planner can actually lay every guest out without breaking its spacing rules:
- 1.5 m between tables, edge to edge, so two guests can push back their chairs at once. Below 1.2 m, chairs bump.
- A seated guest's chair reaches about 0.55 m behind the table edge.
- 1.2 m walkways for staff carrying plates, and never under 0.9 m.
- 1.2 m clear in front of every door and fire exit.
- One bar per 100 guests and 0.3 m² of dance floor per guest.
For 100 guests that comes to about 257 m², or a room near 20 × 13 m. These are planning rules of thumb. Your venue's licensed capacity and its fire rules always come first.
Check it with the venue
Before you book table hire, ask the venue three things: which tables they own (and their sizes), how many they can seat for a sit-down meal in that room, and where the fire exits are. Then lay the room out and send them the plan. A coordinator can spot a problem on a drawing in a minute.
The button under the calculator does the first draft for you. It opens the planner with a room sized for your guests, the tables already filled in, a top table, dance floor and bar placed, and the whole thing in 3D. Move the tables round, add your guest list, and print the table plan when you're happy.
See your tables in a real room. Start from a village hall that's already set out, or draw your own venue's walls and let the planner fill it with tables.
Start from a village hallQuestions
How many round tables do I need for 100 wedding guests?
With 10 at the top table, the other 90 guests need 12 round tables of 8 (5ft rounds), which leaves 6 spare seats. With 6ft rounds of 10 it's 9 tables and no spare seats. Without a top table, 100 guests need 13 rounds of 8.
How many guests sit at a round wedding table?
A 5ft round (about 1.5 m across) seats 8 comfortably and a 6ft round (about 1.8 m) seats 10. You can squeeze one more on each, but elbows touch and the centrepiece has less room.
How many tablecloths do I need for my wedding?
One for every guest table, one for the top table, and about four more for the cake table, the cards and gifts table, the table plan and a spare. For 100 guests on rounds of 8 that's 17.
How much room do 100 guests at round tables need?
About 257 m², a room of roughly 20 × 13 m, once you add a top table, a dance floor, a DJ, a bar and a cake table, gifts table and photo booth. The tables alone take less than half of that; the rest is walkways and the evening.
More free tools
- How big should a wedding dance floor be?Your guest count in, the floor size out. Or a floor size in, and how many it suits.
- Wedding venue capacity calculatorType in the room's size and see how many guests it seats, with a dance floor and bar.
- Marquee size calculatorThe marquee size for your guest count, in standard hire sizes, with room to dance.
- Table plan makerPaste your guest list and print an A to Z table plan for the door. Free, no sign-up.
More planning guides
- Wedding table plan templateTop table, round tables or long banquet rows: how to lay out and print a table plan your venue and caterer can work from.
- How big should a wedding dance floor be?A guest-count table of floor sizes, plus the spacing rules around it: tables, walkways and the bar.
- Wedding reception layout ideasSix real layouts, from a country barn to a sailcloth marquee, and when each one works best.