Chair covers are HOW MUCH?!?!

Holy crap!!! I thought ours was bad!!! Our venue is the SAME way... they even have signs posted up and down their walls in the office of how you can't bring in outside chair covers, you HAVE to use theirs. I thought they were bad with $4, but $8?!?!? HOLY COW!!!!! I would recommend you guys do what we're doing... see if you can add them on later on, closer to the date and if you can then wait as long as you can and then bargain with them. Tell him how you would love to have them, but the price is too much just to cover a chair and see what they come down to. I wouldn't have thought of it myself, but a friend had hers at the same place and they did the same thing and got them at more than half price! It sucks that they're so much though, because sometimes that's what makes it look SO elegant!!!

Jae, I just read that to FH and he and I are in agreement - we will FOR SURE try it if we don't get better ideas. If we're going to be spending $10,000 on just the venue already, we better effing make it look like something nice and put together rather than... not. Thanks for the good idea!

No problem... we said the same thing... "we're paying how much for this place already and you want how much to cover a chair?!?!" If all else fails and we don't get a good price on them, we're skipping them. I know it won't look as elegant as we would like it to be, but seriously... who remembers the chairs??? People always remember the food and music, never the chairs. Good luck!

I changed my wedding date for that reason alone. My venue usually charges about $4.00 each for covers. With 140 guests, that would have dented our budget another $560.00. Our venue offers them for free in January & February because its not high volume wedding time for them. My original date was March 6, so I just pushed it back 1 week. Every penny counts.

Ours are going to cost $4.00each.

$8??? what in the world is that! they would have gotten an earful from me. i dont care to tell people that theyre dumb when they charge wayy too much for no reason. lol. thats ridiculous. thats twice the rate of the more expensive places, no reason to MAKE you use theirs.

$8 is highway robbery. Be prepared to walk away. If they think you're going to walk they will negotiate with you. The going rate in my area is $4/chair. I got a discount from a bridal show so I'm paying $3.50/chair.

I REALLY wanted chiavari chairs, but the venue we're going with doesn't have them. Luckily, their chairs are neutral enough that we don't need covers on them (I don't particularly like the look of them myself, they remind me of pillow cases). However, another venue we looked at had REALLY ugly chairs but only charged $1.50 each for the covers. Did you speak to a manager at your venue to see what the heck their problem is? If they're trying to rip you off with the chair covers, I'd be nervous about what ELSE they'll try to do later.

We are working with one of the two wedding coordinators at my site. I guess I don't know if there's anyone higher up than her in her area. I was thinking I could wait until Monday and then send an email telling her that we love the place but we may have to find another venue if they are going to charge us $8 per chair cover. I was also thinking that maybe I could "appoint" someone to be the chair cover person the morning of and they would make sure they all get done (the issue our venue has is that too many people in the past have brought their own in and the venue's staff has to help tie all the sashes because there's not enough time for the family to do it). If I explain that idea to my wedding coordinator, she may get the point that I understand her rules, but I don't want my guests sitting on ugly blue and green chairs! We both really love this palce and don't want to lose it but FOR PETE'S SAKE!!

Our chair covers are included, but honestly, I wouldn't worry so much if they weren't...yes, you want the chairs to be pretty or at least neutral instead of navy blue and green but your guests will be focused on you and your FH and how happy you are.

I think venues buy hideous chairs to add into the pp cost that they know brides will pay when faced with the option of covering them, but I agree that $8 is insane!

Hopefully your plan will work!

Wow,they are trying to rob the bank! i would try to talk them down to bad they dont let you bring them yourself they got you in a place where you really want them you have to pay extra extra! our venue lets us bring them in or its $5 with satin sash

I think you should politely tell them, "Thanks for your time but I think we'll go with a venue where the chair covers are a more reasonable price." You'd be surprised at how quickly they'd be willing to negotiate once they hear that!

$8!?!?!?!?!?! Holy F! I had a hard time allowing myself to rent chair covers at $2.75 (the going rate in my area) and asked for a discount if we put them on ourselves. It got knocked down to $2.25, but it still adds up pretty dang fast. This kind of thing really bothers me, they are trying to squeeze every penny out of you that they can. Somewhat like they have a monopoly going on when they don't let you bring outside chair covers, or what have you, in.

Wow that is a lot, if you could bring them from the outside, I'd tell you to buy them. I can order them from my wholeseller for around $4 each and they would be yours to keep.

Which you could either keep or turn around and ebay them, etc.

If any of you want a quote let me know, *******@*******************.***

Are you able to rent completely different chairs? It is often less expensive to rent nice wood chairs rather than cover the ugly existing ones.

Ours are $3 but I looked at several vendors that were asking $10 each! I think they buy the most awful colored chairs just to be able to charge for covering them!

Wow... thats A LOT. Ours are free, but the bows/sashes are $3/piece. I think its fair to say $8 is A-FRIGGEN-LOT!

I agree with MRomine. It's all about quality. When you get cheap chair covers, you run the risk of getting wrinkled or heavily soiled chair covers. Also, it take hours to put chair covers on and to tie all the sashes to perfection it takes a professional hand. In my area $8 - $12 is the norm for nice quality.

If they are concerned about the quality & reputation of their venue, they should not have ugly blue and green chairs! And at the very least they should be consistent with the going rate in the area. Just b/c it's not their covers doesn't mean it has to be DIY. I'm sure there's any number of vendors that offer the covers with installation and removal for less than $8. Something about not allowing outside covers and then charging a ridiculous amount just seems unethical to me.

I've talked about this before. It takes a lot longer to put on chair covers and tie the sash nicely than people think. I try to plan for at least one minute per chair cover and sash. That's five hours of labor for 250 chair covers. How long would it take you or someone who has never done it before? It's a lot of work, and if they own them, they have to be laundered and pressed. I charge $4 each, and that is very reasonable in my area. Try to negotiate them down. Many of the better venues in my area offer them as part of their bridal package.