I work with a variety of different wedding professionals on the back side of weddings. By back side I mean the people that make all the magic happen before you or your guests ever enter the room. I help florists and caterers and planners and rental companies. There is one single tool that all these different types of pros use to keep it all together: a CAD drawing of your event.

A CAD insures everyone is on the same page; it helps keep track of counts on things like linens and chairs. It helps everyone visualize the space in advance so that on the event day set up goes smoothly with out everyone running around asking redundant where, what and how many questions.

From the brides point of view a CAD can greatly simplify the entire ‘who sits where’ ordeal. It is just so much easier to plan your seating when you can see it in scale and in situ.

Perfect Table Plan is one of the sweetest consumer versions I have seen. For the relatively inexpensive price of $34.95 you get a fully functioning CAD to lay out your room; a guest list manager and a great ap for writing your seating chart. Handy!

I love that you can play endlessly with the room layout until you get it just right. Add some tables to the window then just drag them around until you like the layout. Cool.

If you are doing your own planning, you really need the ability to work up a map/layout like this for your vendors. Not only will you be making their life easier, but in the process yours too.

In my never ending quest to help brides get their vision out of their heads and into there vendors, I highly recommend that you print out a copy of your layout and take it to all your vendor meetings. So much easier than trying to explain where you want the tables and which centerpieces you want where.

If a system like this is what the pros depend on why shouldn’t you?