Ugly Chairs - Addendum

I had such a good time finding pictures of ugly chairs for that last article! I didn't end up using any of these in my post, but here's a site with a whole lot of ugly chairs!

Ugly Chairs - What's a bride to do?

Let me describe a scene that plays out at least three times per season. A bride comes to me midway through her planning, about six months before her wedding. She has already placed a substantial, non-refundable deposit on a banquet hall. The hall is great, the only problem? The chairs that come with the hall are hideous. She comes to me because she wants to make her wedding look good in spite of the chairs.

I can't wave my wand and turn ugly chairs into silver-plated Chiavaris, but I've run into the ugly chair problem several times and there are a couple of different ways to solve it.

• Rent chair covers. NEVER book chair covers sight unseen--you need to make sure they fit the ugly chairs in question. Your banquet hall may have chair covers available for an extra fee, or will probably know a place that carries chair covers that fit their awful chairs. If that's no go, borrow an ugly chair for the day and find a party rental store with covers that fit. If you're in the Raleigh area, A Special Event has chair covers to fit some folding chairs, and Deejays has chair covers to fit round back banquet chairs.



• Rent better chairs. Sounds counter-intuitive, but a chair cover to cover an ugly chair actually costs more to rent than just renting a nice chair that doesn't need to be covered. Deejays has padded wedding chairs for $2.75 to rent, cheaper than any chair cover I've seen. Make sure your banquet hall allows outside chairs and provides a space to put the unwanted chairs.

Both of these options cost money you may not have. Here are some options for the bride on a budget:

• Rent chair covers for the head table only. It's not the perfect solution, but renting 10 chair covers makes a smaller dent in the budget than renting 200, and many of your important pictures will be of the head table.


• Are your chairs truly hideous, or do they just not match your wedding colors? If it's still early and you haven't paid for your table linens or bridesmaids dresses yet, why not change the color scheme to match the chairs?

I wouldn't recommend making your own chair covers unless you own your own sweatshop. A friend of mine tried this more years ago than I care to admit and had to give up after the 20th chair. She ended up only covering the chairs at the head table.

The best solution, of course, is to refrain from booking a venue with ugly chairs or other "deal-breakers."

Cake Wrecks & How To Avoid

I just found the funniest site. Cake Wrecks has oodles of real pictures of these horrible, horrible cakes--all professionally made--bad enough to ruin your wedding unless you have a really good sense of humor. And people wonder why many women turn into bridezillas?
I use a handful of good local bakers for all my weddings, so I've never had a cake turn out horribly. The only way to avoid a cake wreck is to use a good baker, period, end of story.
A couple of other things to keep in mind:
If you are having your wedding in a banquet room or a hotel, find out when your vendors are allowed to arrive. This can be from a couple hours to a couple days, and you won't know unless you ask. The Durham Sheraton Hotel Ballroom only allows an hour set-up time for you and your vendors--good luck getting those 300 chair bows tied!--while Deejay's banquet room in Raleigh lets you come in at 8 A.M. to set up. No matter where you book, if you get special permission from your site to show up early, be sure it's written on your contract.
Make sure the site has everything your baker needs. The site might have a fridge, but does it have a cake fridge? If the baker needs one (most don't, but some do) and your site doesn't have one, you're out of luck.
As with all vendors, make sure it's clear who is providing what. Don't expect your baker to show up with a cake table unless it's on your contract. Usually the cake table, table cloth, cake plates, and utensils are provided by the site (if it's an all-inclusive site) or the caterer. The caterer usually cuts the cake, too.

How to make your guests feel welcome

...I don't know, maybe have enough chairs for everybody?
Since I work Saturdays and get booked sometimes more than two years in advance, I don't get a chance to attend a lot of wedding as a guest. Of course I want to attend my friends' and family's weddings but what am I supposed to do, tell the bride who already gave me half down "sorry, I'm not coming"? This is why scientists need to get moving on this cloning technology already.
This Sunday, I attended a wedding for the daughter of one of the women in my quilting group. I was invited with only two weeks notice--meaning I was probably a "B List" guest invited just to fill in numbers--which is what makes this next part all the more bizarre.
This wedding was gorgeous. I did not have a hand in planning this wedding aside from helping the bride's mother choose invitations, plus giving some general advice about which caterers, florists, etc to use. I did not plan this wedding, but I know weddings and I know $5,000 worth of flowers when I see it. And that was just the ceremony site. The reception was held at an upscale country club. Even taking into account the discounts they would have received for having the wedding on a Sunday instead of a Saturday, this was easily a $30,000 affair from start to finish.
So why, of all things to skimp on, did they choose to only have ten chairs at the ceremony site (for close family and elderly guests) and only about 80 chairs at the reception for the 150+ person guest list? After standing in heels for the duration of the ceremony, I almost didn't show up the reception. When I got there, I found that the few chairs were already claimed, and those who claimed them didn't relinquish them for the entire evening. I left before the cake was cut just because my feet were killing me. I can't imagine why somebody would spend hundreds of dollars to give sugared almonds in little bags to everybody but not spring for chairs for all your guests. This isn't New York. Heavens, you can get folding chairs for a dollar around here. The whole thing made me feel unwelcome--like a party crasher.

Chair Covers - A Quick List of Tips

Chair covers are my number one way to dress up a wedding. They're far from necessary, but then, neither are foil-embossed invitations but I don't think those are going away any time soon.
Chair covers, when done right, really add to the atmosphere of your ceremony or reception. Photographers always tell me they get better pictures when the venue has chair covers. When done wrong, you might as well have your guests sitting on milk crates. Here are some things to keep in mind when shopping for chair covers:
1. If at all possible, try to get the chair covers from the same rental company you get the chairs from. Nothing looks worse than an ill-fitting chair cover. Too big and it looks like a sack and drags all over the floor; too small and it rides up or worse, won't fit over the chair at all.
2. If you can't get the chair covers from the same place you get the chairs--for example, if you're trying to cover the ugly burgandy-colored chairs that came with your hotel ballroom--don't rely on measurements. You wouldn't buy a wedding dress you haven't tried on, would you? Bring the chair to the rental company and make sure their chair covers fit your chairs.
3. Nice white chair covers + outdoor wedding reception = bad news. Outdoor weddings are allowed to be a little more casual. Take advantage of that and skip the chair covers.
4. Go for polyester. Cotton is too stiff and satin is too slippery. Polyester is cheaper, and looks nicer than both. If you're in the Raleigh area, I like the ones at DeeJay's: Chair Covers. Plus, if you use them in their wedding hall, they will put the chair covers on and tie the bows for you, leading to my next point...
5. Consider the time it takes to put all those chair covers on, and tie hundreds of perfect bows. It takes three of my helpers a whole hour to put two hundred chair covers on and tie the bows.
6. Consider the cost. In my area, expect to spend at least $8 for nice chairs, chair covers, and chair sashes. In NY, LA, or Chicago? Twice that.
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