I’m not referring to this kind of chair dance (although it is awesome).
britneyspearsgifs.blogspot.com
The one I’m talking about is more proverbial. It has to do with these:
Sonal J. Shah Event Consultants LLC
Our venue comes with chairs. For free. Well, not free, but they’re included in the venue’s rental price. Here’s what they look like.
Fun fact: This is the first photo in my “wedding planning” photo folder.
They’re not great. Certainly not as pretty as these gorgeous chiavari chairs (as seen in our venue).
Sigh. So pretty.
After seeing the “free” blue chairs and then plenty of wedding porn featuring chiavari chairs, we asked our caterer to include chiavari chairs in the estimate.
They were over $1,200.
That’s a lot of money, but we told ourselves it would be worth it to make our venue look that much prettier. It would put that extra-special touch on our reception. It would be worth saving money somewhere else to pay for them.
I told myself that we needed the chairs for a couple of months. Then I realized it was ridiculous. No one’s going to notice the chairs. Well, maybe some people will, but the vast majority of our guests will just sit on them. Do we really need to spend over $1,200 on something people will just sit on? That money could be spent on extra hours of photography or more food. Besides, the blue chairs aren’t so bad. They’re Notre Dame colors, and they look pretty good in these pictures.
Photo by Mattson Pictures via Style Me Pretty
That pesky WIC can really sneak up on you sometimes, but I’m glad we realized that free chairs are perfectly fine. And if I ever doubt my decision, the good people over at A Practical Wedding always have my back.
Did you get sucked into the black hole of pretty chairs? Or was your WIC black hole something else?
Bahahaha I love that image.. I like the blue ones, if any they certainly look more comfortable that Chiavari and being budget friendly makes them way better.
I hear you. We have ugly brown chairs at our venue and while they’d be okay for a conference or a meeting, they really, really don’t look nice when the room is fancy. For a while, I wanted Chiavari chairs, too and was sure that I’d go for it but I decided instead to do chair covers. A little more expensive than the regular chairs but not as much as the Chiavari option. Now I get to refer to them as our “ghost chairs”.
You’re right – not many people will notice the chairs. Especially not once everyone is sat down! Our chairs our ok but everyone just assumes you’re going to put covers on them but I’m not personally a fan of chair covers.
I think the blue look fine and I’m sure you could dress them up with a bow or flower etc on the back. x
We had purple and gold chairs which happened to mesh with our colors pretty nicely. But, even if they hadn’t, I don’t think I could have talked myself into splurging for the fancy chairs. I had to keep reminding myself that when all was said and done, they’re pieces of wood that are meant to hold someone’s butt. And that’s that.
Miss Treas…I was totally in your same boat. Our venue rental fee comes with chairs, tables, all linens and plates/utensils/glasses, etc. Mind you, that was a big part of the reason we chose this place in the end.
However, I had a moment where I felt we needed to buy linens or chair covers to make the place prettier. Stalked boards and rates for a week straight before I ended up realizing we didn’t need them and put the money towards favors instead. 
I was totally going to quote APW but you were already 2 steps ahead of me. LOVE IT
@Mrs. Snow Cone: “they’re pieces of wood that are meant to hold someone’s butt.” hahahaha I laughed at that. So true!
the blue chairs will look nice!
im the same way, i’ve always had a thing with chairs… and i HATE chair covers.
thankfully, our venue has pretty nice looking banquet chairs. would chivari look better? perhaps. is it worth it? absolutely not!
Luckily, the only chiavari chairs for rent in our area were gold and didn’t match our color scheme at all, so they were eliminated early on. But I hated the nasty metal chairs that were included at our venue, so we opted for some white resin chairs. Brides and chairs, it’s a constant struggle.
I was kinda bummed out about having white plastic chairs (outdoor wedding!) but then someone pointed out that in most photos, and for most of the day, people are SITTING in the chairs and that does a pretty decent job of hiding them. 
It’s totally a matter of priorities, I’m a weirdo and said no need to pay more for pretty much anything in my wedding…EXCEPT chiavari chairs, lol. I’m one of those only annoying guests who notices chairs. But probably doesn’t notice the tablecloth :-X How many guests do you have for the chairs to be that much? We were quoted $7/chair (so $700 for our 100 people, which I guess helped the decision, since anything under $1,000 seems like no money after all this absurd wedding planning LOL)
We had wooden folding chairs, and no one ever commented on them. They did the job — people had places to sit!
@Mrs. Pony: Venues really should just buy nice chairs themselves. I think it’s all a scam to keep the rental companies in business.
We’re going with flair chair covers for something a little different (they are like spandex-y, rouched covers) because I’m not a fan of traditional covers, and there was no way FI was shelling out for chivarti chairs. I agree, why do venues have such bad chairs???
My bigger concern is my church… maroon chairs and mint carpeting. 
But there is really nothing we can do, and the ceremony is going to be so short, and like PPs have said, people will be sitting in them, so hopefully they won’t be such an eye sore.
Oh, I’ve plenty of times where I’m so tempted to go extravagent on something with the justification that “We only get married once.” Most of the time, I’ve been able to hold off because I’m cheap, haha.
But I’ve come thisclose to ordering custom cocktail napkins like five times…
When my fiance and I were looking at possible reception locations there was one hotel that included the chiavari chairs for free. That was not the location we chose but we went to our top pick and told them about the free chairs. Without hesitation they told us they would give us all the chairs for free (and they had listed on their price sheets that the chairs were $8 each to rent). Saved us a ton of money and all we had to do was ask!
Mrs. Treasure, Chicago Age and Occupation: 24, Law Student Fiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Equity Analyst Engagement Date: July 30, 2011 Wedding Date: September 2012 Venue: Saint James Chapel at Quigley Prep/Murphy Auditorium About Me: I was born and raised in Indiana, but now live in sweet home Chicago. I'm a third-year law student and aspiring trial lawyer, which means Mr. T never wins an argument. Other than Mr. T, I love singing, exploring the Chicago restaurant scene, and Notre Dame football. We met in a musical (just like my parents!) and after 4 years together, we are excited to be planning our urban "destination" wedding.
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