Is this seat taken?!

I hated the chairs my venue had, but in order to upgrade we had to use their vendor and it would've been $8.50 per person to upgrade the chairs. We had talked about it, but in the end decided it was worth it to us to spend that much just on chairs. I can honestly say I don't think anyone noticed our chairs and even though I hated them they weren't my focus on our wedding day.

I have been weighing the same thing in my head as well! The chairs my venue offers are new & they aren’t terrible... but they also don’t fit my theme/vision. We are having a lot of celestial- inspired elements, and most the decor will be black & gold. These are the chairs they provide

We will be having floor length black tablecloths, so the black frames of the chairs would tie them in... but I still just don’t like them. I can’t shake the feeling that they will ruin the overall aesthetic, and it will drive me nuts the night of the wedding. I am also afraid I will look back at pictures and always regret not just coughing up at the dough to rent chairs I liked.
These are the ones I’m thinking about getting...

I really don’t want the added expense, but I also don’t want to be annoyed during my reception, or hate looking back at pictures. I have been to weddings that had ugly chairs before, and it was definitely one of the first things I noticed. Maybe that is why I am so critical of them now! I think in the end, you just have to weigh the cost against the benefits. How much will the chairs bother you? Will it disappoint you walking into your reception and seeing them there? Will you have regrets looking back at photographs? And if so, do those feelings outweigh the added expense of renting different chairs?

I don’t think the chairs matter much either aha I mean people said no chair covers for mine wouldn’t be as nice but I also wasn’t willing to pay $1-2 more per chair for it

As long as the chairs are comfortable no one will even think twice about them! Especially once the room is decorated and filled with people.

My venue had those same chairs with options for sash color. While I am not a fan of them and prefer the look of chiavari chairs more, I like free best (I know they aren't technically free but...). I didn't upgrade the chairs. It would have required another vendor and more cost, and I did not care enough about it for the added headache. I have been married for a little over a year and no one mentioned the chairs lol. They mostly mentioned how awesome the DJ was and how much fun they had dancing.

View Quoted Comment I think the chairs will bother me as well to be honest lol I love the ones you want. It’s similar to the kind I want/wanted

I care about chairs in that I want my butt to be comfortable ! Haha. So I would only upgrade if the venue chairs were uncomfortable. In fact I did— we had to rent chairs anyway so spent $2 more per chair to upgrade from those flat plastic ones to ones with a little cushion. It was a bonus that they were more aesthetically pleasing, but I wouldn’t have done it only for that reason— the look of the chairs is not memorable to guests and only noticeable in a handful of pictures

LOL I never knew how much I cared about chairs until I was venue hunting 😂😂 i hate the metal picnic chairs, hate those metal conference room chairs and hate chair covers and sashes LOL


We ended up looking for venues with wooden chairs already included because I kept complaining so much about them but also refused to pay so much per chair hahaha

As a guest, no one cares what the chairs look like. I would rent chair upgrades to the basic wooden folding chairs before I use covers of any kind.

View Quoted Comment I think aesthetics are one of those things that you are really detail oriented about, or you’re not. If you know that you are going to be unhappy now and in the future about the chairs, I say splurge and get the upgraded chairs! The way I see it is, I am only doing this once – I don’t want to have any regrets!

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I know this is completely a personal stylistic choice, so whatever any bride wants and can afford is fine, but as a guest I would SO MUCH prefer sitting in the padded chairs that come with your venue than the metal backed chairs.... I get it, daughter chose Chivari chairs which were incredibly uncomfortable, but she liked the way they looked. I just did a quick scan of her photos (there were more than 1100 of them from the photographer) and except for 3-4 photos of the empty room before guests moved into the reception room, the chairs are pretty much invisible in the photos. If specialty chairs are a bride/couples' passion, that's awesome, but most guests really just want to be comfortable!

View Quoted Comment I’ve heard that the chiavari chairs were uncomfortable from reading other threads on here. I definitely want to take comfortability into consideration

We used Chivari chairs and found that they were both comfortable and pleasing to look at! My husband and I personally didn't care what our chairs looked like, but our parents were the ones paying and our moms insisted on the Chivari chairs. The rental company that our venue worked with charged $10 per chair for the rentals

View Quoted Comment I totally agree, guest comfort is a huge concern for us. I chose the black and gold chairs based on customer reviews saying they were incredibly comfortable. There were a few other chairs I was considering, but they didn’t rate is high in comfort.

For us chairs don't matter at all, because besides dinner we highly DOUBT that our guests will even be sitting in those chairs. And I know for a fact they won't even pay attention to the look of them lol

These are the chairs our venue has! The first venue we fell in love with had regular white plastic round tables with the white plastic chairs and to be honest...that was one reason why we didn't go with them. The cross back chairs were much more comfortable as well, and we wanted our guests to be comfortable while having our reception area look nice as well!

If we went with the first venue, we would have had to rent table linens to cover the tables, as well as new chairs. We just got really lucky that the second venue came with these gorg chairs AND farmhouse tables.

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The venue we are looking at has chairs similar to this and it fits the vibe we are going for so luckily we do not have to upgrade! But if they had chairs like that the OP had we would have definitely upgraded!

The chairs at our venue are bright red! UGH! So we decided to pay the extra $250 for chair covers, and we will buy sashes ourselves. These are the chairs, though not the room:

They're horrifying. LOL So we're definitely going to cover them!

View Quoted Comment I’m learning now that chairs probably that much of a deal to guest. I just hope I’m not super bothered that day 😂

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I like the chairs your venue provides! The chairs won't be noticeable once they are full of your guests