How We Worked It Out
A 6 ft rectangular folding table is 72 inches long. Three people fit down each side without anybody's elbows fighting, which is six seats, and you can put a chair on each end for eight. So the honest range is 6 to 8 guests per table, and where you land inside it depends on what is happening on the table. A plated dinner with glassware and centerpieces is a six-seat table. Paper plates at a graduation party is an eight-seat table.
The calculator divides your guest count by 6 and rounds up, because rounding down is how people end up one table short with nowhere to put the cake. If your event is casual and you would rather run tighter, take a table or two off the number — you now know exactly how much that saves you.
Chairs start at one per guest, and then we add 10 percent. That overage is not padding for its own sake. It covers the cousin who says yes on Thursday, the DJ and the photographer who need somewhere to sit between sets, the chair that goes to a toddler who then also occupies a lap, and the one that comes off the trailer with a wobble. At $2 a chair per day, six spare chairs on a 60-guest party costs $12. A party where six people are standing through dinner costs you the memory of the party.
Five percent is enough if your RSVP list is locked and there are no vendors. Ten percent is the number we would give a relative. Anything above ten percent is usually a sign the guest count itself is the thing that is uncertain, and in that case call us — it is easier to adjust the order a week out than to guess now.
One thing the arithmetic will not tell you: leave room to walk. Plan on about 3 feet of clear space between the backs of chairs at neighbouring tables, and remember that a dance floor, a buffet line or a gift table all eat into the same square footage the seating does. If space is tight, fewer tables with eight chairs each beats more tables with six.