Guests dropped out a week before. What now?

Somebody has flu, somebody's childcare fell through, and a couple you counted as two are now zero. The wedding is Saturday. Here is what actually needs fixing.

What do you actually need to fix?

Most of it. A table of ten that becomes a table of eight is fine — it looks less crowded and nobody notices. Resist the urge to rebalance the whole room so every table has the same number. Guests are not counting other tables.

The only real question is whether any single table has dropped low enough to feel strange.

When is a table too empty to leave?

Below about five guests.

Below five people, a round table starts to feel exposed. Conversation stops being a table and becomes two separate pairs, and if one person leaves for the bar the remaining group notices the space.

• 7 or 8 left at a table of 10 — leave it entirely.
• 6 — leave it, but check nobody is now seated alone between two gaps.
• 5 or fewer — merge the table into others and remove it.

How do you merge a table without redoing the plan?

Move the whole group, not individuals. If a table is down to four, those four probably know each other — that is why they were seated together. Find the two tables with the most space and move them as pairs, keeping anyone who arrived together together.

Then run the same checks you ran the first time, but only on the people you moved:

• Have you just seated someone next to a person they were kept away from?
• Is a child now at a table with no adult they know?
• Has a couple been split?
• Does anybody now know nobody at their table?

That fourth check is the one that gets missed. Moving four people from a cancelled table often means one of them lands somewhere they know no one, which is exactly the outcome the original plan was designed to avoid.

What to tell the venue

Tell them immediately, and expect to pay for the number you confirmed. Most contracts charge on the final-numbers figure regardless of who turns up — the food is bought and the staff are booked.

What you can usually change for free: removing a table entirely (it saves them a setup), and adjusting dietary requirements. What you usually cannot: the headcount charge.

What if somebody drops out on the day itself?

Do nothing to the plan. Take the place setting away and close the gap by sliding chairs, which takes thirty seconds and the venue will do it. Reseating people on the morning of a wedding causes more confusion than an empty chair ever will.

The exception is a top table gap, which is visible in every photograph. That one is worth closing properly.

The general principle

Late changes should be local. The instinct is to re-optimise the whole room because the plan is no longer perfect. It was never perfect — it was workable, and it still is. Fix the table that broke and leave the rest alone.