The lists on the last day

The number of people who actually walk in almost never matches the confirmations you collected. There are last-minute absences and representatives announced that morning, and now and then someone turns up without ever having replied. Anyone who organises official ceremonies expects this, so decide beforehand how you will handle it.

Freeze the plan the night before

The night before, fix the arrangement and print it. Treat the day’s changes as exceptions to note one by one, instead of redoing the hall a few hours before the start. Redoing everything at eight in the morning means reprinting place cards and lists, and the risk of mistakes far outweighs the benefit.

Keep the lists apart

In the guest list, keep the names that came from invitations separate from those added by hand in the hall. The two lists have different histories: the first can be reloaded from the invitations when something changes, the second is manual work nobody wants to lose.

Last-minute representatives

When a dignitary sends a representative at the last moment, the position in the hall does not follow the office holder’s by itself. Record the representative on the invitation, not just on a sheet at the entrance: otherwise the order of speakers gets rebuilt from memory while the guests are already coming in.