We were so stressed about our seating plan that we built a tool to do it

It started with Post-it notes on the living room floor.

We were planning our wedding - about 70 guests, a venue abroad, one long banquet table. Simple enough, right? Then we actually tried to figure out who sits where.

You quickly realise a seating plan isn't a spreadsheet problem. It's a social puzzle. Who gets along? Who definitely doesn't? Where do the kids go? What about your mate's new girlfriend who's never met anyone? And the classic - where do you put divorced parents without causing a scene before the speeches have even started?

We tried everything. Spreadsheets. Pen and paper. One of those table-planning apps that hasn't been updated since 2015. They all did the same thing - let you type names into boxes. None of them actually understood the why behind seating decisions.

The thing is, seating isn't really about tables. It's about making sure your nan has someone to talk to. It's about keeping your bridal party close enough to grab the mic when the best man inevitably goes off-script. It's about knowing that your uni mates will have a better time together than scattered across three different tables.

So we built Seated.

It's a seating planner that actually thinks about relationships. You upload your guest list - even just a list of names - and tell it what matters. "Keep my parents apart." "Put the Hendersons with someone chatty, they won't know anyone else." "Bridesmaids on the head table, but their boyfriends don't need to be there."

It handles the heavy lifting. Then you fine-tune with drag and drop until it feels right. Export a PNG for your venue coordinator, a CSV for your own records, and get on with the hundred other things you need to do before the big day.

We built it because we needed it. And if you're sitting on your living room floor right now surrounded by Post-it notes wondering why this is so hard - it doesn't have to be.