AI auto-seat is SeatBloom's automatic placement feature: it assigns every guest to a table in seconds, following the rules you set instead of guessing at them. The algorithm takes three inputs, your relationship groups, your keep-together and keep-apart constraints, and your table capacities, and returns one output, a complete assignment of guests to tables. There is no black-box mystique in that exchange; the feature exists because placing 150 names by hand is an evenings-long puzzle, and a constraint solver finishes the same puzzle in under a minute.
This page explains what the algorithm optimizes, when automatic placement beats manual assignment, and how much control you keep afterward. For the surrounding tool, more on seating chart maker covers the canvas, guest records, and exports that auto-seat plugs into.
What Is AI Auto-Seat?
AI auto-seat is a constraint-solving feature that converts an unseated guest list into a full set of table assignments in one run. It reads every guest's group tag, every pairing rule, and every table's seat count, then searches for an arrangement that satisfies the hard rules and scores well on the soft ones. A 150-guest list across 19 tables of eight resolves in seconds; the same list resolves by hand in two to three evenings.
Auto-seat ships with the Pro Couple tier, the $29 one-time plan that also unlocks unlimited guests and PDF export. The free tier builds the same guest list, groups, and rules in the browser without a card, so the setup work is never gated; the run itself is the paid moment. One wedding, one price, and the reception date stops being a deadline you negotiate with a blank canvas.
How Does the Algorithm Decide Who Sits Where?
The algorithm decides placement by treating your rules as requirements and your groups as gravity. Keep-together pairs are never split, keep-apart pairs never share a table, and no table receives more guests than it has seats; the algorithm respects these as hard constraints, not suggestions. Within those limits, it balances table capacity against relationship groups, so college friends land together, a family of seven is not scattered across three tables, and no table is left with two strangers and six empty chairs.
Grouping is the input that matters most. Guests tagged into groups such as bride's family, work friends, or university crowd give the solver its social map, and seating constraints explained covers how to translate family politics into the keep-together and keep-apart pairs the algorithm enforces. Ten well-chosen rules produce a better chart than fifty timid ones, because every hard rule removes arrangements the solver is allowed to consider.
The output is deterministic in its guarantees and flexible in its details. Two runs are able to produce different valid charts, but neither run ever violates a rule you set. If the rules contradict each other, for example two feuding guests both required at a six-seat family table, the solver reports the conflict instead of silently breaking a rule.
Auto-Seat vs Manual Assignment: When to Use Each
Auto-seat wins on volume and revision speed; manual assignment wins on the handful of tables where judgment outranks logic. Most couples use both: run the algorithm for the general tables, then hand-place the head table, parents' tables, and any politically delicate table. The comparison below shows where each approach earns its place.
| Factor | AI auto-seat | Manual assignment |
|---|---|---|
| Time for 150 guests | Under a minute per run | 2 to 3 evenings |
| Rule enforcement | Never violates a set rule | Human error under fatigue |
| Head table and VIPs | Acceptable | Better; judgment calls belong here |
| After RSVP changes | Re-run in seconds | Re-shuffle by hand |
| Nuance beyond the rules | Only what the rules encode | Full context |
The re-run column is the one that matters late in planning. When three declines arrive ten days out, a manual chart owner reopens the whole puzzle; an auto-seat owner marks the declines and runs again, keeping any hand-placed tables locked in place.
Do You Keep Control of the Result?
Yes, couples retain full drag-and-drop override after the run, and the algorithm never re-touches a table you lock. Auto-seat produces a draft, not a verdict: every guest is movable, every table is editable, and a manual swap is never reverted unless you run the solver again on unlocked tables. The workflow is generate, review, adjust, and the adjust step is ordinary dragging on the canvas.
Locking is the control mechanism. Hand-place the head table and any sensitive tables first, lock them, then let the algorithm fill everything else around your decisions. Guests you move after a run stay where you put them, and warnings flag anything a manual move breaks, such as a keep-apart pair reunited by accident.
Seat 150 Guests in an Afternoon: a Walkthrough
A 150-guest, 19-table chart goes from empty canvas to reviewable draft in one afternoon using this sequence. The setup steps take the time; the run takes seconds.
- Import the list: load 150 guests from CSV or paste names, with plus-ones attached to their inviting guest.
- Tag groups: assign each guest to one of 8 to 12 relationship groups; this takes 30 to 45 minutes and drives everything.
- Set the rules: add keep-together pairs for couples and close friends, keep-apart pairs for known conflicts; most weddings need 10 to 25 rules.
- Place and lock VIP tables: seat the head table and parents' tables by hand, then lock them.
- Run auto-seat: 19 tables of eight fill in seconds, rules intact.
- Review and adjust: walk the canvas table by table, drag the four or five placements you want different, done.
That is the whole job: the work that used to fill three evenings compresses into one focused afternoon, and every later RSVP change costs a re-run instead of a rebuild. Ready to try the sequence on your own list? Create your reception seating chart in the browser; the import, grouping, and rules steps are free.
Setting Your Rules Before You Run It
Rules set before the first run determine the quality of every run after it. Start with the non-negotiables: couples together, divorced parents apart, plus-ones beside their dates. Add group-level preferences next, and stop before you encode preferences you do not actually hold; an over-constrained chart forces the solver into arrangements that satisfy the letter of fifty rules and the spirit of none.
Treat the first run as a diagnostic. A table that looks wrong usually reveals a missing group tag or an unstated rule, so fix the input and run again rather than dragging guests one by one. When the draft survives your review with only minor swaps, the chart is done; compare the pro couple $29 one-time plan for the auto-seat run and export, or start a seatbloom login in seconds and build the list first. The seating chart maker basics guide picks up from there with sharing and venue-ready exports.