Assigning Wedding Tables

[Hunter911]

Hello,

I'm getting married this weekend and we have been working on a spreadsheet for assigning guests to tables. Unfortunately, on my future wife's side of the family, there are a lot of rules about who can sit at who's table. I have been tinkering for the past few day on trying to make an easy tracking system for the tables. I know the rules about who can sit where, I'm just looking for a "live" update of who is sitting where after I assign them a table number.

My data is broken into

Name	Table #
Her Mother	Table 1
Her Father	Table 3
Her Step-Father	Table 1
Her Grandmother	Table 3
My Mother	Table 2

I would like to keep using this format to place table assignments since I have other columns for meal choices, gifts, etc...

I would like to be able to have a table that would add the name of the person when a table number is assigned.


Example of what I'm looking for

Table 1	Table 2	Table 3	Table etc...
Her Mother	My Mother	Her Father
Her Step-Father		Her Grandmother

I've been trying to figure out a formula using vlookup and if functions to automatically place anyone who has Table 1 in Column A, Table 2 in Column B, Table 3 in Column C, etc..., but it has not been going well.

Any ideas?

Thank you

[Richard Buttrey]

Hi,

Congratulations on your impending nuptials I hope all goes without a hitch.

And what an interesting question. On the face of it a simple Pivot Table based on your first two column data Name/Table will quickly and easily give you what you want.

I'm now intrigued in thinking about the other rules you could apply to the pivot data. Maybe a third column containing the names of those who can't be on the same table as say Uncle Jim.

[Richard Buttrey]

... here's a starter!

Don't forget to refresh the Pivot Table after you've changed the data to avoid potential family standoffs