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Hi ladies.
I am interested in seeing pictures of receptions where just regular chairs are used instead of chiavari chairs or chair covers. We're saving money by not having these things, but I worry about it. I'd like some reassurance that it will look okay and/or no one will really notice or care. Thanks!!
Our venue wanted to charge us $6.50/chair for chivari and there was no way in hell I could justify over $1K for chairs that would be covered in jackets and people's butts all night. :) These "garden" chairs were only $2/chair to rent and honestly I don't think I even realized there WERE chairs at the wedding on the day of!
We are using the amazing chairs at the venue without any covers. Here is a photo of their website with the chairs.
@Treejewel19: Well, that is lucky! Our chairs aren't amazing. They're sort of goldish conference hall chairs.
If I recall, ours are something like this, but the fabric is a bit more gold/neutral.
Ours are ugly. I don't have any pics yet, but I just couldn't justify spending money on something I consider trivial that no one will really notice or remember. I can't tell you how much I DON'T notice chairs at a wedding. :)
My venue has restaurant-like chairs. I love chiavari but these work just fine for me!
@Treejewel19: That sooo doesn't count lol. Those chairs are chiavari-chair level! :P
@Keltaena: What is your color scheme/theme? Do those chairs work at all? I don't think they are that terrible to be honest.
@eagle: My bad. They are what came with the venue and they do offer chiavari chairs to rent instead. :(
all i can tell you about chivari chairs is that i find them incredibly uncomfortable, and i know that i'm not the only one, as there have been several threads on this topic and others agree!
No pro pics of it yet. but we had folding metal chairs at our reception and not a soul said a thing about it and I don't remember even seeing them the day of, people are in them, people walk around, they put jackets on them, ect.
While the fancy chairs look nice, they will be in all of one picture maybe from the day, and honestly, as long as the other chairs are not awfully uncomfortable, no one is going to care.
@Treejewel19: Our colors are black and silver with a bit of pink--so the chairs don't really work with that! I think I just have to not care and hope no one else cares either. . . Hopefully everyone will be busy having a good time.
@Keltaena: Our chairs are like that too! Our colors are purple and green, lol. What we did was add teeeeensy bits of burgundy to the other things - like a burgundy ribbon on part of the centerpieces. It was thin and smaller than the purple and green ones. Just enough to be like, "We know there are burgundy chairs here, guys." Lol. I'll have to show you when we do our recaps next month! (Holy crap!)
But again, I think chairs are kind of whatever. Plus, people will be sitting in them most of the time, not staring at them. ;)
We just used plastic white folding chairs. They were less than $1 apiece to rent.I thought I had a pic saved, but I don't. They look like this though
Who cares about the chair covers? They are a nice touch, but at the end of the day, no one is going to say "that was a beautiful wedding, but the chairs were ugly."
We didn't have chair covers, we figured they were a waste of money.
Its the rare occasion where I like a chair cover over a chair, even an ugly chair. I think it looks heavy, old fashioned, over done and just not my style.
I think most people do not really notice them and if they bother you that much I would put the money into the centerpieces so people are more inclined to look there. They are anyways.
I REALLY think the padded, conference type chairs will look fine. Especially in a neutral color :)
I really like the chair at our venue, it was one of the reasons we picked the place, cause we wouldn't have to shell-out extra $$$ for chair covers.
This is just a photo from their website, we're going to have table linens, but the chairs will remain bare! :P
I'm having a simliar issue... I want a light colored table cloth and the chairs provided by the facility are black and black is no where in our color scheme.. . I'm afraid it will look stupid so I thought about adding black to our colors, but I really really really don't want to :( I also cannot afford chair covers :(
Our chairs were not pretty, but they were free so who cares! I only noticed once when I first walked into my reception hall after my DOC and friends had finished decorating. After that, I totally did not notice at all, nor did anyone else.
Here is my reception site, I am doing these chairs in brown rather than white though. 
We didn't have chair covers or fancy chairs. It would have been prettier but honestly, I've NEVER noticed what the chairs looked like at any wedding I've attended...only how comfortable they were.
We had standard banquet chairs in a gold/mustard color. We draped the backs with black sashes to distract from the color. It worked perfectly fine and we rented the sashes for $1/sash. I'm not a fan of chair covers.
@peasantsong: Yep. Our ugly chairs are free too. I guess saving $1,000 is worth ugly chairs.
I don't think your chairs look bad. They're chairs! You could always get chair covers, sahses, OR, if you're the crafty type, head to a fabric store and buy some fabric and MAKE your own! 40% off coupons are always swimming around for Joann's and Hobby Lobby!
My venue is being held at a Moose Lodge. Not the greatest but I don't see spending thousands of dollars on a wedding. You can have a nice wedding without spending a ton of money and going in debt over it.
We have the restaurant style chairs, they are padded but ugly. I plan to cover them with tulle and slip a bow on them, that will help. I think it will look ok. I don't have pictures yet but I have tested it out on a chair at the house - again, not the same but I think it will be ok.
I am posting a couple of pics (one of the venue - again, not totally extravagent but decorations will make it what it needs to and two - of a chair covering that I am going to use but tested at home). Also, I think I am going to swap the color - black sash and a pink bow .
Coverings will be cheap and simple! Tableclothsfactory has bolts of tulle (54" x 40 yd on sale for $19.99 a bolt - this will make 60 covers (cut it 2 feet wide x 54") and then use a 6 or 9" piece of tulle for the bow. http://www.tableclothsfactory.com/
@Keltaena: TOTALLY worth it. You're chairs aren't even that bad! I like the design of them and I can imagine liking the gold/neutral color.
The best part....my chairs are ugly too and the venue, again isn't the greatest but for a rental fee of $250, I get to have my wedding in one end and my reception in the other with the use of a full kitchen! It works :)
We're still undecided on this. Our venue owns them, so its going to end up being a last minute decision based on where we are with the budget by a couple weeks before the wedding.
But - from our venue website, here is one wedding with, and one without:
We could have upgraded to white or wooden chairs, but in the end I don't think most people are going to remember what kind of chair they sat in during your reception. Personally, I wouldn't want the 'take away' memory of my wedding to be, "gee, those were some beautiful chairs!'. I'd rather folks remember the ceremony, the fun they had, the food.....so that's where we spend $. :) It'll be ok.
We used the chairs that came with the venue which I think are similar to the ones you described. Everything looked fine, as there were hints of gold throughout, and that went well with our color scheme of black and ivory. I'm glad we didn't pay the extra $.
It would have cost us $10 a chair for the chivari's. So we nixed it.
I actually had a chance to sit in one a couple weeks ago at a bridal show, and they were surprisingly uncomfortable.
We don't have any pics yet.
Our wedding colors were pewter & black (and a little green). The chairs that our venue provided were hideous - cheap grey plastic & metal folding chairs. I'm not a fan of chair covers so we rented plain black folding chairs instead, which were much less expensive than Chiavari chairs and I think fit our industrial venue better anyway. Your banquet-style chairs aren't nearly as bad as the ones at our venue, and so I'd say try to work the gold into your color scheme and it should be fine...
This is our venue and the chairs.
The chairs aren't that bad, and I HATE the look of chair covers.
I'm planning on doing a sash, or tulle covering of some sort. I think the tables needs to be dressed up more, because those table coverings are a little short, they really need some longer table cloths.
I'm searching for some ideas too. Any ideas anyone? Our colors are Peacock colors/ winter wedding.
So Cobalt blue, muted green, and silvers. I might changethe table cloths to black, but I'm not sure yet.
Our venue has plain white folding chairs. I ordered black sashes from linentablecloth.com to tie on the backs for $50 for 100. I told the venue I'd sell the sahes to them when we're done so they can be reused. 
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