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I feel you. I ended up renting my chiavari chairs for $6.25 each but I'm in Toronto and guilted my rental company into giving me a great deal after one of their reps was pretty unprofessional with me. They're regularly $10 each. To go along the lines of what you're thinking, I ended up buying my linens for less than the rental cost and I'm reselling them after the wedding. I'm also thinking about starting a rental company for some of the smaller details I've been searching for for my wedding and having to end up buying them. You're not alone ;)
If you're really thinking about buying the chairs, keep in mind that most manufacturers have a 6-8 week lead time on furniture, and if you're ordering that many I would think it would be a lot longer than that even.
I am sorry, but I wouldn't rent them at all. They are included with my venue. If they weren't and the chairs were ugly, I would rent chair covers instead.
@noritake22: I'm with Noritake22. No offense, but even $5.00 per chair is a little excessive to me. Perhaps not to higher-budget brides.
Remember that you would have to store them, transport them, and keep them up. You'd have to market that you have them. Perhaps accept credit cards? Perhaps a website. Possibly insurance (if a chair breaks and someone is injured?) Renting big stuff like that is a BUSINESS, so you have to be really really committed to the idea.
@noritake22- Understandable. I, on the other hand, am having to start from scratch. We have no tables, no chairs, just an open woodsy beautiful area that we want to get married in.
@evalague- I have been thinking about it a lot. I've already started looking into box trucks and marketing would be easy since I was a advertising/marketing major in college. It would definitely be a business, but a business that would pay for itself in a year or two.
Yeah, I'm not a fan of those chairs. They're just...chairs. No offense, but I would never spend money on renting chairs.
@awhurdler: I think you might want to research how many people start from scratch versus how many people look for all inclusive venues. That way you could make a more informed decision. I think you have the right idea, but you may be surprised at how many people don't rent chairs.
@awhurdler: Well that means you have put more thought into it than most people have, sometimes people just jump in without thinking (including me I did this, TWICE) and get themselves in trouble. I finally got my own business going but I had to pay what Dave Ramsey calls the "Stupid Tax" first. Good for you! Good luck.
$0 isnt a choice but that would be my voice. they are SO UNCOMFORTABLE!!! have you sat in them longer than 5 seconds? seriously your butt falls asleep.
i am totally happy with my venue's ballroom chairs. chavari they are not, but they are comfy and formal looking
now if your venue has like crappy folding chairs that totally mess up your vision, yes rent chairs, but i totally would spend money elsewhere unless you just simply could NOT live with yourself if you didnt have the chairs. you can get nice chairs at a lower price....
edited to say - im a tard and totally didnt realize you were asking because you wanted to start a business. honestly - chivari chairs NOT WORTH THE $$.
Honestly I would probably go with cheaper chairs!
IMO $5 or more PER CHAIR is absurd! I personally think that the white folding wood chairs look the best in outdoor settings
I dont think i'd rent any chair for any price. Although I love the look of these chairs more than the typical, I just would not be able to bring myself to pay for something like a chair rental.. or even chair covers. If my venue didn't have these, I was prepared to just deal with whatever chairs they did come with.
I'm a Cincinnati gal but I can't help a whole lot as we're not needing to rent chairs. However, I do think that if you can rent at a largely discounted rate, you'll get interest from brides, esp. in Cincy areas like the Reading Bridal District.
my venue offer them fancy chairs as a package. I went with this venue as oppose to the first one because we would have to upgrade if we wanted these chairs (addition of $5 each..outrageous..which is why we won't be working with the first venue.)
I looked into renting those chairs too and it would have cost more than I budgeted for altogether on furniture. We are getting basic white padded chairs, 6 60" tables, 8 cocktail tables, and 12 square banquet tables for cheaper than it would be to rent 52 chivari chairs. I couldn't believe it!
I'm renting Chivari chairs, but my caterer gets a discount from All Occasions Rental. It's not much of a discount, but I saved a ton of money on other things, and i like the way they look.
We had Chivari chairs at my reception. I am so not a fan of chair covers, and prefer the clean lines of Chivari. But I do agree that those chairs are absolutely not comfortable. However, I think that Chivari, linens and lighting make the biggest visual impact, so we spent our money on these rentals, and cut down on having elaborate centerpieces.
Eh, to each her own. We happen to think chairs are important in our case, so we are springing for black Thonet chairs at $8 a pop. (Thonets are these chairs: http://www.chairblog.eu/category/chair-designer/michael-thonet/; scroll down to see #18) They look smashing and we love them so--so much that we're offsetting the cost by not having certain things like centerpieces or cake (just the dessert provided)--in fact, since our locale is pretty nice as it is, this is the one thing that we're buying in terms of decor. It's not a decision everyone would make, but it's right for us.
BUT my point is, don't spend that much money just because Chiavari chairs are "coveted" or because the wedding industry has declared them the high-class choice. $2300 is a huge chunk of change. Rent them only if YOU really love them and if they matter so much to you that you'd be willing to sacrifice other things (even if that isn't the reality--even if whomever's paying told you "do whatever you want"; it is still $2K for chair rental) Otherwise, Mrs. Martin is right--white wood chairs look lovely and they too, are classic.
Chivaris are nice, but I personally don't think they're any prettier than the bamboo chairs we had that rented for the same price as standard white wooden chairs. I wouldn't spend $5 each on chivaris. I think it's great though that you're starting a rental business, if you think they're overpriced in your area, then that's awesome that you're doing something about it! And I'm sure you would get a lot of brides renting them at $5 or $6, since the usual rental price is more like $9-$10 for them.
I'm in L.A. costs of rentals are insane. I'm starting my own business Chiviari Chairs $3.50 a pop and 60' round $5... with a $500 minimum.
Your thoughts...
I don't have anything against Chiavari chairs (or the people who use them), but I wouldn't rent them. I'm not super concerned about my chairs.
@Future Mrs. Martin: these are the kind of chairs we had, but they were plastic and they were totally fine. A little used looking, but you couldn't tell in pics and I'm sure no one remembers what my chairs looked like. I think I paid $.75 a chair or something like that.
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So, in this endless search to find chiavari chairs, I've come to the conclusion that I am going to start a rental company. I can not comprehend spending $9.25 to RENT a chair for a few hours! That's preposterous and wrong! Cincinnati has a monopoly on the chiavari chairs just like it has a monopoly on the taxi services! So before I go buying 250 chairs, I'd like to know from you Cincinnati bees, at what price would you rent chiavari charis? If I were to buy these coveted chairs and rent them out at, I don't know $5 a chair, would more Cincinnati brides rent them? And I would only buy the mahogany color for now since that's what my wedding calls for. Just thinking...