Mawridge. Mawridge is wot bwings us to Lucidchart tooday. 

“The Princess Bride” references aside, wedding planning isn’t easy. It involves a great deal of coordination and organization across groups of people who sometimes aren’t even located in the same state. 

Planning my own wedding in Utah was a significant effort, and Lucidchart proved invaluable as I could easily create a collaborative document. My officiant (flying in from Hawaii) could see the ceremony setup, my maids of honor (Florida and Ohio) could comment on layout and seating, and the venue coordinator (Utah) could see my plans as they updated without me driving an hour and a half. Below are some of the ways that Lucidchart helped me coordinate the day—and that might help you with any event you find yourself planning.

RELATED: See additional tips and templates for event planning.

Floor plans

One of the simplest yet most valuable offerings on Lucidchart for event planners is the floor plan shape library. Each shape is set up to scale, so you can easily map out the basic floor plans of your venue and any additional rooms for your caterer and event rental deliveries, complete with doors, windows, and stairs. Use our floor plan creator to scale and mark other important pieces (outlets, projector screens, etc.) so that you can then turn basic shapes into your tables and chairs and digitally play with the layout. 

Layers and hotspots

Sometimes, you might want to present a few different options or to include other pieces that don’t naturally fit on most floor plans—a second-floor loft space or ceiling decor, for instance. In Lucidchart, you can use layers to show how the decor should hang from the ceiling or how the flow of the decor or party should move into the loft space. I even used a layer to map out the rough arrangement of the decor on the tables, as a reference option. Use hotspots, which function like hyperlinks, to create clickable areas on your diagram that will turn the layers on and off, or even link out to your Pinterest inspiration page so the catering staff knows how you want the arrangement to look.

Data linking

Inevitably, seating charts and catering are a challenge—make things better by linking live data to your Lucidchart diagram. Data linking allows you to pull in your spreadsheet of guests, and link each person to a seat at the table complete with their choice between chicken and fish. Update your spreadsheet, and Lucidchart updates, too! Consider creating a conditional formatting rule that highlights which guests have allergies that the caterer needs to be aware of, and share the data-linked chart with your caterer ahead of time.

Smart Containers

Have all those pastel sticky notes on your old science fair board lost their stick yet from rearranging them so much? Import your list of guests into Smart Containers, and easily move them into different categories, such as “Not Responded,” “Maybe,” “Attending,” and “Not Attending.” You can also group them by other aspects, like “Chicken” or “Fish,” or perhaps “Allowed to Toast” and “Under No Circumstances Should Be Given A Microphone.”

See more, do more, and know more about your event with Lucidchart.