Chair help! Uncovered, covers, chiarvi??

Oh - the attached photos are all of my venue showing the different setups with chairs that brides have done before. I will be doing black tablecloths. Wedding colors are black/white/blush.

Are the chairs in the first picture the ones provided by the venue?

View Quoted Comment Correct - they are a brownish red.

View Quoted Comment Gotcha. I was going to say the chairs that are provided aren’t that bad, but if your color scheme is black, white and blush, I can see why you don’t want to use those. Personally, I would do the chivari chairs, if they are within your budget.

View Quoted Comment I definitely like chiarvi chairs the most, but it wouldn’t be in my budge to do both ceremony and reception with them. Would you do covers or uncovered venue chairs for the ceremony? I don’t anticipate using black as a color on that side unless it’s in the chair covers - it would just be my blush and white flowers for aisle decor.

I personally would do the chiavari chairs for the ceremony, as they look more elegant. Then the other chairs with covers (I think it's also fine without) for the reception because they honestly look more comfortable and it's a longer time for people to be sitting. To be honest, no one is even going to notice or remember your chairs.

View Quoted Comment Personally I'd do uncovered chairs for the ceremony. Most ceremonies are short. Most of the pictures will be focused on bride and groom so the chairs won't be too noticeable.


Do you have a picture of the ceremony space?

I also really dislike those chair covers as I like to tuck my feet under my chair and those get in the way, lol.

View Quoted Comment Yes this is the ceremony space shown with uncovered venue chairs.

View Quoted Comment In that case, I would do the chivari chairs for the ceremony, because they look more elegant and formal. Also, they are less comfortable than the chairs in the reception space, so it would make sense to use them in the space where guests won’t be seated as long. For the reception, I would just use the chairs provided uncovered. I know the black covers fit your color scheme better, but if I’m being completely honest, I think they look cheap and tacky; plus they aren’t the most comfortable for guests either. I just looked back at our wedding photos, and there are a lot of pictures that show the chairs from the ceremony. However, I could not find one single photo from our reception that showed an entire chair. Photos at the reception are focused more on people standing, mingling and dancing.

View Quoted Comment I think those chairs look fine for the venue. Is your ceremony going to be long?


I've always sat more during a reception than ceremony. Ceremonies have never been over 30 minutes, but have sat for over an hour from end of cocktail hour to start of dancing.

I would do the uncovered chairs for the ceremony and the chiavari chairs for the reception since that is where people are going to be spending most of their time. They look nicer and are not uncomfortable to sit in in my experience. Nobody pays that much attention to ceremony chairs.

Speaking as a guest, I have never had a good experience with chair covers, and spandex is the worst. They always come off and are very uncomfortable to sit on at that stage. Chiavari chairs are comfortable as long as you can secure the cushion so it doesn’t slide. Otherwise the most comfortable chairs are usually the “ugly” ones that people try to cover and no one cares what they look like. Don’t spend extra money on this or overthink it.

Go with what’s the most comfortable. Guests won’t notice the look, but especially at the reception where they’ll be sitting longer, they’ll notice if the chairs are uncomfortable.