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Our budget is dying slowly. It gave a few whimpers in pain when we realized that our guest list had hit our maximum, yet we had no friends invited. It started to cry when we realized we hadn’t factored in a videographer, but we really wanted one. It started screaming bloody murder when we added an additional 39 people to the guest list. And now it’s dying. Despite all that, I still think about things that are likely a total waste of money.
Let me preface this by saying that I had never even heard of a chivari chair before I got engaged and started lurking around on the knot. Now I keep hoping that our venue will somehow decide to replace their god-awful chairs with chivari chairs at no additional cost. What is a chivari chair, some of you might ask? This is is a chivari chair:
image courtesy of Classic Party Rentals
I really like these chairs a lot. I am under no illusion that this is a reasonable or important thing to care about. No, I realize it’s totally stupid. It gets even more stupid when you realize that the average rental for a chivari chair is about $8. Per chair. For chairs.
These are the chairs provided by our venue for 50 cents each:
image courtesy of Shannon Berry.
They are very, very ugly, in my opinion. The room is so elegant, and these chairs are…not. Like, at all. Compare, if you will, to this photo of the Green Room set up with chivari chairs:
Photography by Lisa + James.
Oooooh. Aaaaaaah. So classy.
Part of me says, “They’re chairs. No one is going to notice them.” The other part of me says, “These chairs can like, make or break a room.” Stupid, stupid me.
My only hope is this: One of the caterers we checked out said that a lot of people split the cost of the rental with the other people who have rented the venue for the same weekend. So theoretically, if someone rented the Green Room for the Friday before our wedding and the Sunday after, we could split the cost of the rentals three ways and it would ALMOST not be a ridiculous and frivolous expense. Almost. Sadly, last time I checked, no one had rented the Green Room for Friday or Sunday.
I’ve heard the Green Room is a wonderful place to get married on Friday and Sunday nights in early August! Anyone interested? Contact them today! 
Seriously though. What stupid things do you think about that you realize are totally ridiculous?
I also worried non-stop about the chairs for the reception. Part of why we went with our venue was because the chairs are nice enough to not need any help so that was one thing that I wouldn’t have to stress about - but I probably will anyways!
These chairs are not stupid! We’ve rented them too! I totally think that the chairs make or break the room.
I hear you about the chairs! My place has hideously ugly chairs too, and charges $3 per chair cover- which I am not totally sold on either! I have yet to ask if they will let me rent different chairs, but I might just have to factor that into my new budget 
my venue surprised me a couple weeks ago by replacing their white plastic chairs with chivaris. for no additional cost to me! too bad you’re not in central Pennsylvania!
Our venue has the metal folding chairs, so we’re going with chair covers - so far I’ve found them for about $3/chair. Cheaper than actual chairs, but cover the ugly chairs that are provided!
surprisingly it was my fiancee to had issues with the banquet chairs at our hotel. i thought he was so crazy, but right. i was lucky enough to find a great chair cover company that was really reasonable $2.50 each and free delivery/setup.
I agree with you about those chairs. $8 per chair is a lot, but wow, those green ones …. It might make me insane to see them in my wedding pictures.
Yes, chivari chairs make the room appear nicer when it’s first set up and everyone first walks in. But after they are seated and everyone is enjoying the reception, the chairs aren’t noticed nearly as much - if at all. Hopefully the room gets rented another day (or two) that weekend so you’re able to split the costs. But if not, you are making the wiser choice on how to spend your limited budget: with a videographer and more of your friends there to celebrate with you.
Oh my, I’m having the same issue. My chairs look a lot like yours, but rounder and burgundy, not green. Chair COVERS cost $7 each! Sigh…the chivaris are lovely, but the green ones aren’t too hideous…right?
we’re actually calling rental companies about chairs tonight, but white wooden folding ones for the ceremony site (outdoors in a park). Our reception site has weird black fake chiavari chairs with burgundy cushions that SO don’t match their barn aesthetic or my pale wedding colors, so we’re moving the ceremony chairs to the reception site in between. and that’s what i’m worried about. they’ll somehow get lost or dirty on the way there. they all won’t make it in time, etc. but, we’ll see. “where there’s a will, there’s a way” is my motto for the moment.
I am sort of a chair snob….I think they make a room. That being said I also love the wood folding chairs which are like 3.50 each. They come in white, natural and mahogany.
Alot of people including your caterer etc. get 20% off (even me :)) so that could save you some chedder.
Nobody’s rented for the 3rd come one people. Some great people were born on that day. wink wink.
You know where to find me if you need the discount.
Good post, because this is very common. I ended up spending about $3 each for chair covers with gorgeous satin sashes.. and they did really make a difference, but I could not justify the chivari prices.
I did spend a lot less on other decorations because the chair covers and sashes made the room very elegant on their own.
i cannot fathom spending $8 pp on a chair. and you don’t even get to keep the chair! the budget we’ve been so careful about would collapse.
our venue is charging us $2 pp to add chair covers and floor length linens. they bought the linens/covers and only charge us what it costs them to clean them.
this is why we went with a venue that is not about nickel and diming us. it may not be the most coveted venue in the area, but they are nice to us and our budget!
First off - Not a stupid thing to worry about.
(And I say this for self-preservation, because this was the source of the biggest fight that my husband and I had during the wedding planning process. Obviously you can tell what side I was on. 
)
I had to have Chivari chairs. He thought it was ridiculous and said “no way” - not enough room in the budget. And he was right. It did put us over budget.
So, what did I do? I ordered them anyway. It was bridal insanity. I had officially lost the fight and I went out and did it anyway.
The one moment of satisfaction came when his mother’s friend gushed to us, “I just love the chairs! We had them at our daughter’s wedding too!”
Not sure the moral of my story other than… I’ve been there and know exactly how you feel.
The Chivari chairs are pretty! I have a similar problem - roundish burgandy chairs perfect for whatever business functions are hosted in the venue - not the greatest for wedding receptions.
We are doing chair covers with ties. If you aren’t into the whole “big bow” thing, they can be tied in a myriad of ways. We are just having them knotted in the back.
I know what you mean about the budget thing - we broke ours with the videographer and my monumental candy buffet on top of the donation favor we were already planning on.
Oh my… the chairs AND the lighting do add to the Green Room!!
(drives the last fatal blow to your budget, rips its heart out, still beating)
We all have something different to stress about. I just cannot get worried about the chairs. I am in the camp of “once people are in and eating who’s looking at the chairs?”
We’re going to use the chairs at our venue that look a lot like you’re “don’t like them” picture. I chose those over the 2nd option of the chairs that have a brass lattice back not too different from the chivari. I think our guests tushes and back will be happier with the amount of cushion compared to the chivari bars across the spine.
$8/chair… I’d be happy to have $8 more to spend per person in the appetizer hour…. That’d be 3 more tasty bites!
I actually have the same exact obsession! Our venue has perfectly fine white, wooden chairs, but when we went there for a sweetheart tasting (they set the place up like a mock wedding and all the vendors are there doing their respective vending-dinner, cake, etc.) they had Chivari chairs! I fell in love and plan to rent them if not too expensive….
Um, yeah, ditto on the chairs. We honestly went into our venue with very low expectations because we had seen a photo of the reception space set up with very ugly chairs and even uglier chair covers. Lo and behold, they’d replaced all of their old, gross chairs with absolutely gorgeous chairs in the year since their photos were taken. The cushions even matched our chosen colors! It was pretty much nirvana.
Any chance your ultimate guest count will end up dramatically smaller than your guest list? (If, say, you were like me and planned for 160 and ended up with 85 or so, that’s only half as many chairs … not to mention dinners, etc.)
those chairs provided by the venue are horrible! you are not being ridiculous at all for wanting pretty chairs because like everyone said already, chairs can totally break or make a room. everything is all about presentation and ugly chairs will be such a contrast to all the pretty things that you’ll have at your wedding.
i say you should try to find reasonably priced chair covers to cover those chairs up. they can turn out really pretty if you find the right color and style. the chivari chairs are a bit too expensive and probably not worth it on a tight budget.
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Mrs. Cream Puff, San Francisco Bay Area Age and Occupation: 25, Illustrator Fiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Merchandise Planner Engagement Date: May 27, 2007 Wedding Date: August, 2008 Blogging Since: February 7, 2008 Venue: Ceremony at Crissy Field and Reception at the Green Room About Me: I never dreamed about my wedding as a little girl because I was too busy playing in the mud or pretending to be Martha Stewart–but now that it's here, I'm having a fabulous time DIYing everything in sight! We’re planning a very fun multicultural wedding (I'm Jewish and Mr. Cream Puff is Chinese), filled with as many personal details as I can muster.
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