I’m talking about chairs and chair covers today. I know, don’t get too excited. 🙂 But, when you think about it, even though chairs are such a minor consideration compared to other aspects of the day, they will probably sneak into a good amount of the wedding photos. And I don’t want them to look out of place. Yet, in the same vein, our budget didn’t and still doesn’t have a wedding chair contingency plan. Hmm, what’s a girl to do? Let me relay our mini-dilemma.

The first time we toured our venue, our ceremony room was set up for a business conference. Picture long tables covered with white linens and mauve cloth covered metallic legged chairs manufactured in the 1980s, possibly the early 90s. I perused the room, completely skipping over the chairs, because in my bratty (albeit naive) bridal mind, I assumed that our venue would be providing us with those pretty, “ladies lunching”, delicate chairs that I had seen at friends’ weddings before. Something like this:

{Sigh} I later learned that the chairs I was envisioning were called “chivari chairs”. When presented with my complimentary chivari chair assumption, our catering manager laughed and resolved my rookie mistake by handing me their pricing guide for venue chairs. My brief love affair with the chivaris ended abruptly. Heck, our venue didn’t even offer free chair covers. You mean I have to pay you to cover up your ugly chairs? Huh? Here is a sampling of what they look like:

In retrospect, they were not bad, but certainly were not the chivari chairs. Initially, I decided that our chairs would need to be covered. So we negotiated with our venue’s manager and got her to throw in chair covers and sashes for free. Sweet. So with covers, the chairs might look like this: I still couldn’t decide whether I liked the chair cover look or if there was just too much fabric going on. I’ve been in limbo about this for months. Then I got an idea from WeddingbeePRO, Courtney at Flush Designs (more on our meeting in a future post) that I hadn’t thought of before. She suggested we might think about using the chairs as is. They might fit in nicely with our vintage-inspired theme and the chair covers might actually make the room look too busy. I tend to agree with her line of thinking, and I am now leaning towards not covering the chairs. How will you handle your venue’s chair situation? Will you cover them or not? Image Source 1, 2, 3

February 20, 2009

thelessthandomesticgoddess

9 Comments

  1. Krista

    February 16, 2009

    I’d say cover them, but only with the chair cover, not the ribbon bow. Or with the ribbon bow but not the cover. I think something would look good, but the image you have is too busy.

    (And thanks for your kind words!)

  2. AmyJean

    February 16, 2009

    I found an awesome deal in OC for $5 chair for the chiavaris including delivery, setup, tax and pick up… It’s what i’m going with 🙂 The price was similar to what it’d cost me for chair covers… so why not ! lol
    RelentlessBride

  3. Anne K. in L.A.

    February 17, 2009

    I’m anti-chair cover unless your venue chairs are heinous. That being said, I think the chairs that come with your venue are fine. No covers needed and I agree whole-heartedly that they would coordinate with your vintage theme.

  4. Cyd

    February 17, 2009

    Our venue’s chairs are hideous, black padded yuck. They will absolutely be covered! I think the chairs at your venue are far less offensive, so why not save a buck?

  5. Victory Bird

    February 18, 2009

    I vote no covers! The coordinator is right, they aren’t really that bad, and it would make the space overly busy to cover. The chair match their environment already, don’t bother fighting it!

  6. LauraAnn

    February 18, 2009

    I am still torn between chair covers or chiavaris chairs. I am hoping to borrow a chiavaris chair and a chair with a cover and see which one looks best in the venue (of course pricing will be a major part in the final decision).

    In your case, I vote no chair covers! The chairs aren’t bad as is!

  7. Krista

    February 18, 2009

    P.S. It was quite rude of the planner to laugh at your assumption.

    I’ll be thinking of you when we get back on your wedding day!

  8. thelessthandomesticgoddess

    February 24, 2009

    I think we are about 90% positive that we won’t use the chair covers. Plus, the provided chair covers aren’t even the ones I pictured in my post. They are more drapey and messy looking.

    @Cyd: I like how you described hideous chairs as “offensive”. Hee hee! 🙂

    @Krista: Hahaha! Come to think of it, that was a bit rude of her!!

  9. ami @ elizabeth anne designs

    February 25, 2009

    those chairs are pretty! i definitely say no covers. 🙂

Comments are closed.

RELATED POSTS