Choosing a venue and laying out the room

A place checked against its posted occupant load or the code's planning figure, against your guests' access needs, and against what it includes; then a sketch of where people sit, where food goes and what stays clear.

The venue checklist Understand

A venue is the place the event happens: a hall you rent or borrow, a restaurant's private room, a park shelter, a backyard or your own dining room. Choosing one means testing it against the brief (The event brief): the date, the guest count, the kind of event and the budget. The venue checklist is the set of questions you ask every place you consider, so that two places compare on the same terms. The rows below come from the University of New Mexico's student event guide, the Better Business Bureau's venue advice and the rules that park departments publish (UNM's Event Planning Guide, BBB's tip on finding an event venue).

Two terms in the table. Load-in is when and by which route suppliers bring food and equipment into the place. A weather clause is the part of a booking or contract that says what happens if weather stops or changes the event: a refund, a new date, or nothing.

Before you book

BBB's advice for a rented venue: tour it in person; get at least three references; search the venue's name with the words "reviews" and "complaints"; sign a contract, since BBB warns against any venue that offers none; and pay the deposit by credit card, because a card charge is easier to dispute later. The budget covers deposits and the card rules. Write each venue's answers on the rules checklist and the place on the event brief, so the answers are in one place when you compare.

Date and place choose each other. A date limits which places are free, and a place limits the guest count. If the place you want is booked, the brief's backup dates are the first thing to try.

Capacity: the posted sign and the code's planning figure

A room's occupant load is the number of people the building code says a space is designed to hold, worked out from its floor area and its use. It is a count of people in the room, so it includes hosts, helpers, the caterer's staff and a band as well as guests.

Where a sign is posted, it governs

Many rented rooms carry a posted occupant load: a sign near the main exit that gives the most people allowed in the room. Virginia's building code, for one, requires every assembly room or space with an occupant load of 50 or more to post it for its intended layouts "in a conspicuous place near the main exit" (Virginia's 13VAC5-63-245). Fairfax County's fire marshal adds that an assembly space is one used for gathering, eating and drinking included; that a room used in several ways, such as a ballroom or a room with movable partitions, may need a sign for each layout; and that a room under 50 may have none (Fairfax County's assembly occupancies page). Washington, DC's placard can show two numbers, a maximum seating capacity and a maximum allowable capacity (DC Department of Buildings' capacity placard guidelines). Who issues the sign depends on the place: the building official in some, the fire official in others. Four places are compared under Go deeper. Ask the authority

Read the sign for the layout you plan. A hall posted for a standing crowd holds fewer people at tables. If the sign gives a seated figure and a total, a dinner uses the seated one. If the venue's contract sets a lower limit, the lower number is your limit.

Where no sign is posted: the code's planning figure

A room under 50, a backyard, a garage or a borrowed basement usually has no sign. For those, the code's factors give a planning number. The International Fire Code's Table 1004.5 gives the floor area allowed per person in an assembly space without fixed seats. Washington adopts the 2021 edition of the table and publishes it free (Washington's WAC 51-54A-1004), and the 2024 edition of the model code keeps the same three factors.

Net floor area is the room's floor area minus the space where nobody can stand or sit. The Illinois State Fire Marshal's guide lists what comes off: a bar, pool tables, storage rooms, washrooms, and structural members such as columns (Illinois State Fire Marshal's guide to occupant loads). Measure the room, subtract those, divide by the factor for your layout, and round down.

A worked example. A church hall measures 40 by 60 feet, which is 2,400 square feet. A built-in stage takes 10 by 20 feet (200 square feet), and a fixed serving counter takes 100. The net floor area is 2,400 minus 300, or 2,100 square feet.

• At tables and chairs: 2,100 ÷ 15 = 140 people.
• Chairs in rows: 2,100 ÷ 7 = 300 people.
• Standing: 2,100 ÷ 5 = 420 people.

The same room plans for 140 at dinner and 420 at a standing reception. The layout is half the answer. The Illinois guide adds that the number and width of exits can lower the figure further, and that under NFPA 101, the life safety code Illinois uses, a room for 50 to 500 people needs at least two exits.

The room capacity calculator does this arithmetic. Enter the room's size or floor area, the area to subtract, the layout and, if there is one, the posted number. It shows the code's planning figure, and when a posted number is entered it says that the sign governs. Rental companies publish their own space-per-guest figures, which allow more people; they answer a different question and are compared under Go deeper.

Tables, seats and clear paths

Once the limit is known, the layout decides whether the seats fit. Rental companies publish how many people sit at each table size. The figures below are GoFoodservice's, with Party Rental Ltd.'s range beside them and Curated Events' floor area for each table with its chairs (GoFoodservice's folding table chart, Party Rental Ltd.'s table seating guide, Curated Events' space requirements guide). Product-specific

A banquet table is the long rectangular folding table that rental companies list as a 6-foot or 8-foot table. GoFoodservice explains its range: the lower number seats guests along the sides, and the higher one adds a chair at each end. Party Rental Ltd. allows 24 to 30 inches of table edge per guest and says that wide chairs and decorations on the table lower the count.

To count tables, divide the planning number by the seats per table and round up. GoFoodservice's example is a seated dinner for 100 at 60-inch rounds of 8: 100 ÷ 8 = 12.5, so 13 tables. The last table is not full, which leaves room for a late guest or a high chair. The tables calculator does this from your planning number and shows the floor the tables take with their chairs, using Curated Events' figures as a layout check.

Space around the tables

Tables and chairs are not the whole floor. Curated Events allows a two-foot walking aisle behind chairs or buffet tables when there are serving staff, and 4 square feet per dancer for a dance floor. Bright Event Rentals says to allow at least 8 to 10 feet of clearance around buffets and bars, where people queue (Bright Event Rentals' planning guide). These are rental companies' planning habits, not code. Convention

The sketch

A sketch on paper is enough. Draw the room's outline to rough scale (one square of graph paper per foot, or per two feet), then the doors, the exits, the outlets and the restrooms, then the tables. Put these on it:

• Seats. Each table with its chair count. The total covers the planning number, hosts and helpers included.
• Food and drink. Near the kitchen or an outlet, with room for a line that does not cross a doorway or an exit.
• Paths. From the entrance to every seat, the food, the restrooms and each exit, at least 36 inches wide (the accessible route figure in the next section) and clear of cords, bags and coolers.
• Exits. Marked on the sketch and kept clear of tables, gift piles and stacked chairs.
• Everything else. A gift or card table, coats, a children's corner, the speaker and microphone, a place for helpers' supplies, trash and recycling.

Access: a route, a seat and a restroom guests can use

Some guests use a wheelchair, a walker or a cane. Some cannot manage steps, stand for long, or cross a lawn; some are hard of hearing or have low vision. A place works for them when they can get in, reach a seat and the food, use a restroom and leave. The ADA National Network's planning guide for temporary events gives figures for each, drawn from the ADA Standards (ADA National Network's guide to accessible temporary events). We give them here as what makes a place usable. The ADA's rules for public accommodations (Title III) do not cover a private party in someone's home; a rented hall or a public community event can be a different matter, and the venue or the organizing group answers that question. Ask the authority

An accessible route is a continuous path with no steps that a wheelchair user can follow from the arrival point to every part of the event they attend. A slope of 1:12 means one inch of rise for every 12 inches of length, so a single 6-inch step needs a ramp 72 inches (6 feet) long. The guide says it is generally not acceptable or safe to carry a person with a disability up steps.

Ask, then lay out the answer

The guide says invitations and registration should give a contact and a reasonable deadline for requests. Guests and invitations puts the access question on the invitation. The layout then answers it: a place at a table with the chair taken away, near the door and the restroom; a parking space or drop-off kept free; a seat facing the speaker for a guest who lip-reads; a chair near the buffet for a guest who cannot stand in line. Ask the guest what works rather than guessing. When you walk the route, walk it all the way to the restroom: a step-free entrance followed by a restroom up a flight of stairs is a route that stops halfway.

Service animals

Where the ADA applies, a service animal is not a pet, and the guide says it is allowed in any part of the event its handler may attend. Staff may ask two questions only: whether the dog is a service animal required because of a disability, and what work or task it has been trained to perform. They may not ask about the disability, require documentation or ask for a demonstration, and the Department of Justice says allergies and fear of dogs are not valid reasons for denying access (ADA.gov's service animal requirements). If another guest has a dog allergy, seat the two guests apart. At a private party, a guest's dog is the host's call, and the considerate version of the same rule is to ask the guest what they need.

A party at home

At home the limit is the furniture and the floor, not a sign. Measure the table with its leaf in and count the chairs you own; borrowed folding chairs count once they are in the room. Party Rental Ltd.'s 24 inches per guest is a fair test with a tape measure: a 72-inch side seats three. Then walk the rooms with the guest count in mind.

• Seats. One per guest for a seated meal. For a standing party, enough seats for the guests who need one: older guests, anyone with a cane, anyone pregnant.
• Coats and bags. A bed or a rack, out of the path.
• The bathroom. One guests can find without a tour, with soap, a hand towel and a spare roll in sight, and a light left on.
• Children and pets. Where children play out of the kitchen's way, and where a pet spends the evening, for guests with allergies or a fear of dogs.
• The way in. Steps at the door, a dark path, a narrow hall. Walk it as a guest would, after dark if the party runs late.
• Power and the kitchen. Which outlets a slow cooker and a coffee maker can share without tripping a breaker. The oven is the other limit; A dinner party schedules it.

A lease or building rules may cap guests or set quiet hours. Permits and insurance covers reading them.

Outdoors and park shelters

An outdoor place adds weather, ground and distance. The checklist gets these rows:

• Shade. In summer, the shade is where people stand. Check how many it covers at the hottest hour of the event, not at a morning visit.
• A rain option. A covered place that holds everyone, or a written plan for who goes where: the house, a garage, a second shelter, a tent.
• Ground. Grass, gravel and slopes are hard going for wheelchairs and walkers. The accessible route needs a firm, stable surface, so look for a paved path to the shelter and the restrooms.
• Power. How far the nearest outlet is and whether the park offers any. Generators are a question for the park and the fire department; The contingency plan gives the carbon monoxide distances, and the manual does not teach running one.
• Restrooms and water. Where the nearest are, whether they are open on your date, and whether one is accessible. For portable toilets, the access section's 5 percent, and at least one.
• The park's own capacity. Parks set a limit per shelter, and some enforce it.

Three park departments show the kind of rule to expect. In Spokane, Washington, some shelters take 200 people per reservation and two take 40; and paid reservations open 18 months ahead (Spokane Parks' shelters page). In Boulder, Colorado, Foothills Community Park's shelters take 50 each and two other parks' take 250; the city says no refunds are given due to inclement conditions, and it offers to reschedule if space allows (Boulder's park shelter reservations page). Fairfax County, Virginia, says a group over a reservation's capacity may be required to leave, with no refund (Fairfax County Park Authority's picnic area rules). These are three places' rules. Your park department's page or permit gives your shelter's number and terms, and The planning schedule dates the booking.

A tent changes the plan in two ways: it may need a fire department permit (Permits and insurance), and it has a wind limit (The contingency plan).

See it: the Okafor pavilion, a school cafeteria and Marcus's table See it

Practice: measure, count, walk and sketch Practice

Minimum: the place's limit written on the brief, seats counted against the planning number, the route walked once, and a sketch. Time: about 30 minutes at home; one to two hours with a visit to a hall or park. Materials: a tape measure (25 feet if you can borrow one), graph paper or plain paper and a pencil, a phone camera, your planning number from Guests and invitations, and the venue's answers if you have them.

1. Find the limit. In a hall, photograph the posted sign and note which layout it covers. With no sign, measure the room, subtract the fixed things nobody can stand in, and enter both in the room capacity calculator. At home, measure the table and count the chairs.
2. Write the place and its limit on the event brief.
3. Count tables and seats with the tables calculator, and compare the seats with your planning number, hosts and helpers included.
4. Walk the route. Start where guests arrive (the street, the parking lot, the drop-off) and go to the entrance, a seat, the food, the restroom and each exit. Photograph every step, threshold, narrow door, slope or patch of soft ground, and write what you will do about each.
5. Sketch the room. Rough scale; seats, food, drinks, paths, exits, outlets and restrooms.
6. Write down the venue's answers. The rules go on the rules checklist; the deposit and its due date go on the budget.

Your event Your event

Check your work Check your work

Criteria

• Does the brief name the place, with a limit beside it: the posted sign, the code's planning figure, or your seats at home?
• Where there is a sign, did you use its number for the layout you plan, and the venue's own limit if that is lower?
• Does the seat count cover the planning number, with hosts and helpers counted?
• Did you walk the route a guest takes, all the way to the restroom, and write down each step or narrow spot with what you will do about it?
• Does the sketch show a clear path from the door to every seat, the food, the restroom and each exit?
• For an outdoor place, is there a rain option that holds everyone, and a separate lightning answer that uses buildings or cars?
• Are the venue's rules, deposit, cancellation and weather terms written down?

Worked example

The Okafor reunion's brief names the pavilion with "posted 60; about 80 coming". The rain option is written as two choices with a decision date, and the lightning answer is "cars and the park building, not the pavilion". The route question went out on the reply, and Grace's visit is on the schedule. The seat count is still open: the brief does not say how many picnic tables the pavilion has, so the family cannot yet say whether older relatives all get a shaded seat. It passes the criteria it can, and the open rows name who answers them (the park department and the households). It does not say the family fits under the roof in rain, because it does not.

Common mistakes

• Reading a standing figure for a seated dinner. Check which layout the sign covers.
• Counting guests and forgetting everyone else. Hosts, helpers, the caterer's staff and a band are in the room too.
• Dividing gross floor area by 15. Subtract the bar, the stage, the fixed counters and the columns first.
• Treating a rental company's 10 square feet per guest as a capacity. It is a layout figure, not a limit.
• Treating a pavilion or tent as lightning shelter. NWS says neither is safe.
• Checking access at the door and stopping there. Walk on to the seat, the food and the restroom.
• Booking before reading the weather and cancellation terms. Some parks refund nothing for weather.

What is still unresolved

Whether your event needs a permit for a tent, alcohol, amplified sound or a street is settled by the bodies in Permits and insurance. What happens in rain, wind or lightning on the day is a decision in The contingency plan. The planning number comes from Guests and invitations, and the venue contract's terms are read with the questions in Hiring suppliers.

Knowledge check and scenario

Checklist

• The brief names the place, the seat count matches my planning number, and the sketch shows a clear path.
• The place's limit is written beside it: the posted sign, the code's planning figure, or my seats at home.
• I walked the route a guest takes, to the seat and the restroom, and wrote down each step or narrow spot.
• Hosts, helpers and suppliers' staff are counted, and the exits on the sketch are clear.
• For an outdoor place, the rain option and the lightning answer are written down.
• I compared the code's factor with a rental company's figure for my room and measured the doors and any ramp. (Go deeper; optional)