- Blog
- Bios
- Boards
- Classifieds
- DIY
- Gallery
- Vendor Reviews
- Shop Weddingbee
Weddingbee Blog
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 they certainly were not chivari chairs. Initially, we 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 Weddingbee PRO, 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 we are now leaning towards not covering the chairs.
How will you handle your venue’s chair situation? Will you cover them or not?
I wouldn’t cover, because I think they attract more attention when they’re all sashed up. Undone, though, they’re just chairs, and don’t take away from the decor.
I think Courtney is right. We are leaving the chairs as is at our venue. I just couldn’t justify the cost of chivari chairs even though I think they are beautiful!!
We are going to have to cover them…they don’t even match! Some are stained or look like they have been exposed to sun for too long.
Had the exact same issue! At first we were going to rent simple white folding chairs for our rooftop ceremony, but when the logistics made the price sky high, we decided to just deal with the chairs as-is. I don’t think anyone else will notice, other than the bride! And as a sidenote, your venue chairs are way less ugly than mine =)
Not sure if this helps, but our venue has chivari chairs that you rent. They could actually lower the cost of the chivari chairs but couldn’t lower the cost of covering the banquet chairs with linens. We are going with chivari chairs because the banquet chairs are scary looking and its cheaper than coverhing. I think the chairs you have above look nice and you wouldn’t have to cover.
I agree, those chairs really aren’t that bad 
I wouldn’t go with the chair covers, there would be too much going on.
don’t cover the chairs!
although they are not chiavari chairs, they are really cool looking and vintage! i say embrace them!
We’re in the midst of figuring this out too. Our venue has pretty comfy chairs but they’re blue. Nothing wrong with blue but our colors are the opposite of anything blue. We’re going to rent the chivari chairs (no sashes or ties) but not without doing some major price comparisons and trying to have them discount the price, “in light of the economy.”
If you are having a vintage theme, the regular chairs aren’t bad at all.
I’ve always found chair covers really weird looking, but perhaps I’m in the minority.
Those chairs look good. I would leave them as-is. I think the covers might overwhelm the room. I’m using dark walnut fold out chairs and leaving them as-is because it’s outdoors. I looked in to chivaris, but at almost $9.00 per chair, I said “no.”
Can’t wait to hear how your meeting with Courtney went. I just received our invitation in the mail from her. She’s great to work with.
@theredpen: I can’t stand chair covers, personally. You’re not alone. 
Don’t cover!! Those chairs are actually really nice… most hotels have the “meeting” chairs.. that are SO ugly! But, since I hate the way the fabric drapes over chairs with chair covers, we went with Spandex chair covers. Seriously, best last-minute wedding purchase ever. They looked AMAZING. They looked like normal chairs except with a little pizazz. (yes, i just said pizazz). Not many people know about spandex, but I would say look into it. The company I used shipped them and they were easy to put on and take off.
I like the look of the chairs without any covers or frills. I’m more simplistic I guess.
Your chairs are nice, so I don’t think they need to be covered. At my venue, the chairs are terrible (rips, stains, etc.) and I’m trying to do whatever I can to make room in the budget for covers. I saw the room set up with covers and thought it looked nice, but when I saw how bad it looked without covers, I knew we had to at least try and make it work.
I think your chairs look great as they are. Plus, I bet they are way more comfortable than chivaris. And I am with the group that does not like the fabric chair covers - they generally drape badly, and often just look cheap. And they call more attention to the chair than the chair alone would attract.
And, I disagree with you - unless you’re planning on having a collection of photos of your empty room, I don’t think you’ll really see your chairs in your wedding photos. Your photographer will mostly take photos of people - and while sometimes those people will be sitting down, a lot of the time they won’t - and even if they are, the focus of the photo will be the people, not their chairs. We got our album last night, and out of the 120 photos we selected for our photographer to use, there is not a single one that shows a chair.
Your chairs are WAY betting than our chairs. I agreee with Suzanno, unless you are planning on having photos of just the room set up…I doubt anyone will notice. We are having this same discussion right now, and I have hard time paying so much money for really something no one will notice but me.
Don’t cover! I am biased though I guess, since I am generally anti-chair covers. I think if the chairs are really old and ripped, with stains, then yeah chair covers are a good idea (but I’d make the venue supply them gratis, in the event of old and yukky chairs.)
We were in the same boat. So we are having the florist supply the chivari chairs. I think covering the banquet chairs would cost as much as renting chivari. Anyway, covering isn’t the most awesome–you’re probably doing the right thing to not cover.
please don’t cover them! i really like the chairs as is and i feel like covered chairs and sashes look so stuffy.
but if you do want chiavari cairs - I am also in the LA area and was able to get a pretty good deal. pm me and lmk if you want the info!
Don’t cover them! I like your chairs the way they are - and I am also not a huge fan of how the covers look. I just don’t think chairs are a great place to spend $, in fact I had to check our pictures to even see what ours looked like! (I think they are actually Chivari - our venue pretty much only does weddings and scush so I guess they bought nice looking chairs
| Visit our sister sites | eHarmony Online Dating |
eHarmony Advice Dating Advice |
Project Wedding Wedding Songs |
JustMommies Pregnancy Calendar |
Mrs. Glitter, Los Angeles Age and Occupation: 27, Research Consultant/Writer Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Accounting Engagement Date: May 6, 2007 Wedding Date: June, 2009 Venue: Millenium Biltmore Hotel About Me: I was born and raised in West Los Angeles, California. I spent eight years in the Northeast working and completing my education. Having split time between two sides of the country has given me a true appreciation for both coasts. It has also provided an overabundance of cross country drives, flights and long distance relationship fun/misery! I love my family, my doggy Emma, fabulous wine, Anthropologie, politics, reading, being outdoors, exploring new cities, and good movies! My fiance and I are complete opposites, but somehow we have managed to fall completely and hopelessly in love.
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 | 30 | 31 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
Latest Gallery Pics