Outdoor wedding question

I do think it would be awkward to ask the guests to move the chairs themselves. Generally, that's something that venue staff take care of. We also had to rent chairs and our guests sat in the same chairs for the ceremony and the reception, and we certainly didn't want to have to rent double the number of chairs! Our venue staff took care of moving the chairs (in our case, it was during the room flip during cocktail hour). Will you have venue staff at your reception who can do this? This is what I'd recommend

Definitely have staff set up for reception...

It's an unusual request but not unheard of for a super casual event. Men are going to be more inclined to do the heavy lifting if there no designated staff which is generally not present at casual events. For a formal wedding, staff would definitely be on hand to do this.

I would imagine that the venue's staff should be moving the chairs.

View Quoted Comment It is a backyard wedding so the people setting stuff up is all family and friends.

I see no problem with why they can't move their own chair for a backyard wedding, several of my siblings weddings were in backyard/house and we had no problem doing it

If staff can't do it then maybe you can ask a certain group of men to move the chairs?

I would not with that many people. Especially if you’re trying to have assigned tables, people will probably pull chairs together with whoever they want.

I don’t think it’s awkward, but I do think it’s rude. If you don’t want to provide chairs for both the ceremony and reception, you should hire someone to move them for you during cocktail hour.

Honestly I do think that's kind of strange. Do you have a DOC or does your venue provide one where they can do it for the guests? Personally, my husband and I opted to pay for the extra chairs so nothing had to be moved from the ceremony site into the reception hall. I think that made for a better flow for the ceremony into the reception b/c no one had to wait for chairs to be moved.

At a wedding I just went to a few of the men close to the bride (father, brothers, etc) moved the chairs pretty quickly. Maybe have a few people close to you designated for that? I wouldn’t necessarily ask all of my guests to do that personally. I’m laid back and wouldn’t be offended or anything if I was asked to move my chair at a wedding but I feel like it could be easily avoided.

We attended a more casual wedding where guests were asked to help move chairs. It was a fairly small wedding - probably around 30 people - and a couple of the guys took it upon themselves to move the chairs for everyone.

With 250, that's definitely a lot of movement. If I'm dressed up and in heels, I'm not going to want to carry a chair, and I can't see my grandmothers trying to move a chair.

If setup is being done by family and friends, I'd get a group of volunteers/assign this out so that a select number of people are in charge of this.

If there is going to be a flip from ceremony to reception, the venue staff should do that for you while your guests are at cocktail hour. If you are not doing a full flip, if the reception is in an entirely different space, or if you are not having cocktail hour, you will need to have extra chairs at the reception site. Guests should not be asked to move or set up anything.

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Even though it's a backyard wedding, I would definitely hire some event staff to help out because 250 guests is a very large wedding and an enormous number of people! Moving chairs is something that staff should be able to do.

Staff or groomsmen should do this. I saw this before in a wedding, chairs moved from ceremony outdoor to the hall indoor reception. The guests waited outside and had time to congratulate the couple and had short small talk. The groomsmen were very quick and helpful 🥂

I don't think it would be rude but it would be difficult for them to all move their chairs at the same time. You would need to stagger it, like maybe have one row at a time move at a time. I would ask the venue though if they could do it.

Backyard wedding or not, 250 is A LOT of people and chairs and that sounds like chaos to me. And having been a sibling forced to do the setup, serving, and cleanup at a backyard wedding (of ~100 people), I would strongly recommend you hire help. Doing that much work takes all the joy out of attending a wedding.

View Quoted Comment Update! We have decided on doubling the chair count.