Wedding Blog
The crazy choice that so many brides are driven to tears over… chivari or covers? I too was one that was obsessed with the elegance of the chivari, especially since it happens to match my golden color scheme and work with the atmosphere so well. Yet, when it came down to the final decision, it just wasn’t worth an extra $1000 for a pretty and uncomfortable chair.
Now, in the beginning, I thought that the price difference between chair covers and chivari chairs was $0.50. The hotel charges $8.50 for the cover and sash, and only $9 for the chivari chair. Can we say, super sweet??? But then, when I plugged in the figures into my super duper Excel spreadsheet…I realized a fatal flaw in all of this: a 22% service charge and 8.25% tax. So that would mean our chair covers would cost $1571.36 or chivari chairs would rack up $1662.86. Umm…. ouch?
So when we got our latest wedding coordinator, who happened to work previously at another hotel, we asked if it was possible to outsource our chair decor. She approved, as long as we were only dealing with chair covers, since the set-up and clean-up time for the chairs just wasn’t optimal, and so we were off in search of a vendor. My mom was referred to Elegant Affair by a co-worker, and it turned out to be the perfect answer to the chair affair.
Our coordinator had worked with them countless times at her previous employment, so there was no worry about the service or the quality of the job. Suddenly, the cost of renting chair covers went down to $630, including set-up and clean-up, and my desire to spend an extra THOUSAND dollars on chairs drifted to a far off land.
To top it off, she also offered to hide the large columns in the room with draping for $280 less than the Marriott was going to charge us… and I’m sure she’ll do a much better job! So, in total, we’re saving $1200 from our original decor plans, all for a little bit of outsourcing.
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Share this post: Choosing Chairs
I’m so happy for you! =) I think chair covers look just as nice as chivari, if not better!
Can you believe that my reception site gives us the chivari chairs and my fiance doesn’t like them and wants to cover them! After I showed him the same chairs in every bridal magazine and the cost of covering them I’ve talked him off the ledge of renting more comfortable seating, heck everyone better be up dancing anyway!
So are fancy chairs or chair covers REALLY that important at a wedding? I’m having an elegant, black-tie wedding… but we were just planning on sticking with the plain black, uncovered, standard chairs. With the amount of money the wedding is sucking out of us, I really cannot justify spending over $1500 on some fabric to stick over a chair.
Am I totally off base here? Is the lack of a chair cover going to make my guests walk in and gasp at the ugliness?? I didn’t think anyone would notice, but the way everyone else obsesses over the proper chairs/covers, it makes me seem like my guests are all going to whisper behind my back at the horrors of a naked non-chivari chair!
Thoughts?
Hello Miss Lemon,
I am getting married in Sept in Carmel and was looking at using Elegant Affair to rent my chairs too… would you mind sharing the cost she is charging to drape the room at the Mariott as I might want to do that too… if you don’t want to share that info I understand but it would be helpful 
Thank you!
Ditto what Julie said. I would LOVE to have chair covers, but I just can’t justify the cost. We are coughing up all the money for our $25k wedding so we are trying to be frugal, especially since we are only 2 years out of college and this is our by far our largest expense thus far. I am hoping that I will be the only one at the wedding that even notices the chairs. I would rather spend that money on the honeymoon or put it towards a house.
nice! good job w/ saving some moola. i love chair covers but totally see it as a “nice to have” only after everything is taken care of and you happen to have money left (ha!). it really depends on the venue, if the chairs are gross, cover ‘em up! if there’s ok, save the money. as a guest, i never noticed the chairs. but now, as guest who is engaged and planning a wedding, i definitely notice!
When you’re sitting in the chair the only important thing is if it’s comfortable enough to sit in through a dinner and most of the reception… so I would say why spend extra for uncomfortable chairs?
We paid no attention to chair covers. The best chair covering is a smiling happy guest.
Hi! I’m going through the same issue right now…while chivari chairs are pretty and would match our colors a bit better, once we rented the chairs/cushions, they did end up costing a bit more than covering up the standard chairs with covers/sashes. The difference in cost was not so much an issue as the difference in comfort. Yes, it’d be great if everyone was up dancing the whole time and thus the type of chair wouldn’t matter. However, you do have to sit through toasts, dinner, etc and chivari chairs aren’t comfortable for even one minute. Furthermore, if you’re having a lot of older guests at the wedding, the standard chairs are going to be more comfortable for them….I think your guests will welcome comfort over fashion any day.
I was also leaning towards Chivari chairs at first but decided on the chair covers instead for the same reasons - less time and expense in outsourcing.
Now the real question is why can’t venues just have nice chairs so we don’t even have to worry about this??
We are using this site to order our chaircovers. Their prices start at 2.30 per cover and sash combo.
I think most venues actuallly *do* have nice chairs. If any of us were planning any other type of function, we’d think they were just great. But since it’s a *wedding* brides are somehow convinced (by the industry?) that the chairs must be white/fluffy/gold/bamboo. But I betcha most guests don’t even notice/remember the chairs, with one exception: if the chairs are uncomfortable. I’d rather invite more guests than have fancy chairs.
padded chair backs are usually comfier. can you try out your chair options for comfiness?
hi, just passing by. i love reading your DIY posts!
um i may be missing something but the difference between $1571.36 and $1662.86 is only $90 some odd dollars, not $1000…. doesn’t seem like too much?
I had a chair cover vendor try to talk me out of booking another chair cover vendor because her bows were not all tied straight. He charged $5 each chair cover compared to her $2 (labor & tax included!) so there wasn’t a question of NOT booking her. Who cares if the bows aren’t perfectly straight? I just want the venue’s ugly chairs covered up.
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Mrs. Lemon, Los Angeles/Monterey
Age and Occupation in 06: 26, Graduate Student (Public Policy)
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Environmental Consultant
Engagement Date: April 7, 2006
Wedding Date: July 7, 2007
Venue: Rosary Chapel & Monterey Marriott, Monterey, CA
About Me: My FI and I met online, but we like to tell people that we met at a "cookie shop" which is the technical location of our first encounter. He proposed exactly 1 year, 1 month and 6 days after our first date (it's the only part of his proposal speech that I remember), and we're planning long-distance from Los Angeles for a July wedding in my hometown of Monterey, CA. I have a passion for all things "cool, cute and quirky" and I enjoy video games, reading blogs (WeddingBee, trashy celeb, consumer & political) and crafting in my spare time, if I have any!
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