Ceremony Trouble

jahnmc

I'm having a beach wedding in July. We will be having around 50-75 guests attending. My problem is that my fiancé and I are paying for this wedding by ourselves. So, renting chairs for everyone to sit on is completely out of the question, as we are low on funds now.
I'm asking for ideas from all of you Knot ladies. I've run out of ideas and need some second, third, fourth and so on opinions!

Thanks for all your help!

Nicole

janedoe1113a

You need a chair for every butt.  If you can't afford to seat people, you shouldn't invite them.

MyNameIsNot

You need to figure out a way to get seats for everyone.  Cut something else out to get the funds, cut your guest list, beg, steal, or borrow.  You don't need fancy chairs, but you do need seats.  You can't ask people to stand for your ceremony.  You just can't.  

tracy_k

I don't know... I went to a small beach wedding where there were no chairs, it was fine.

But it was also quite literally the shortest wedding I've ever been to... exactly twelve minutes from the first note of the processional started until the bride & groom walked back down the aisle. It was at 9:30 a.m., followed by a brunch reception.

If your ceremony is 15 minutes or less it should work just fine.

jahnmc

I would like to say to tracy_k, thank you for YOUR kind words. I was planning on having a short ceremony.

As for navybaby, you dont have to be so rude! I was asking for ideas, not your feelings.

tracy_k

Nobody's trying to be rude to you, but you will hear that from a lot of people. And honestly it's pretty standard to have seats for everyone at the reception.

If you're going to do things outside the norm you're probably going to get flak from some people... but YOU know your guests better than any stranger on a message board, so you will know if they can handle what you're throwing at them.

I didn't have seats for every butt at my non-plated-meal, non-sit-down-dinner cocktail-party-style reception and you'd have thought I'd lobbed a turd at the queen the way some people on The Knot responded. I just trusted my reception venue coordinator and my then-fiance, and knew my guests would love it no matter what, and I was right.

Oh, I would try to spread the word beforehand that you won't be having chairs, and have "ushers" in place to direct people where you want them to stand. They way they'll know what to expect and won't be awkwardly milling.

MyNameIsNot

No one was rude to you.  Although you'd be being quite rude asking your guests to stand.  

So your ceremony is 15 minutes.  Ok.  Most guests arrive 20-30 minutes early for a wedding.  Ceremonies rarely start right on time, so (being generous) add 15 minutes.  Then your 15 minute ceremony.  Now your guests have been standing for close to an hour.  

While your young, healthy people can happily stand for an hour, even in dress shoes, the older, sick, pregnant, or injured guests cannot.  Not everyone's issue is obvious, either.  My 25 year old, healthy sister has a knee injury, that very few people know about.  She cannot stand still for more than 15 minutes without severe pain.  This is not rare.  

On top of that, if you have people standing, those in the back will be unable to see over taller people in the front.  

These are your guests, and you are inviting them to share your wedding.  Do not start the event by being rude and making them uncomfortable.  Find a way to get seats.  

quotequeen

I'm not sure what kind of ideas you were looking for when you've already said there is no way you can afford seats?  (Also, your OP does ask for opinions, which you received... I'm sorry they weren't what you wanted to hear.)

tracy_k

I totally meant to include the fact that you will have to have at least some seats, for older guests and/or those who cannot stand.

However, I'll also say check with your local parks and recreation dept. I think ours rents chairs for events and they are relatively cheap, yours may offer something similar.

skippylouwho

Can you borrow them from a church, a school, a fraternal group or even a funeral home?

Churches will often loan to members .  Fraternal groups - Masons, Elks, Moose, etc will often loan tables/chairs to their members.
(
Funeral homes often will loan for things like family reunions, etc.

stardreamer1223

When a friend of mine got married at a botanical garden, they rented chairs for the guests. When the ceremony was over they moved the chairs to the reception site (backyard of the brides parents). So they only had to rent one set of chairs. Are you renting for your reception? Maybe you can use the same if you are.
But you should provide seats for your guests at the ceremony.

aerinpegadrak

We're having a standing ceremony.  It's not ideal, but it's either that or make the guests set up and break down their own chairs, so I'm choosing the lesser of two evils.  There are several elements to ours that make me okay with it:
1) Guests will have somewhere to sit until literally the minute we start the processional.  I won't give the signal for the guests to gather until we're lined up and ready to go.
2) The ceremony will be under 10 minutes
3) Guests who need to, for whatever reason, can pull up a chair
4) Our guest list is very tiny, about 40 people total, and 14 of those people will be up front.  So it will be almost like a wedding in the round, with guests no more than a row or two deep.
5) Just in case, I'll make a note on the program mentioning that shorter guests should be allowed to move toward the front.

But if I had the space or any sort of staff who could break down the chairs, I'd rent them in a heartbeat.  It's a hell of a lot more effort to make sure everyone is comfortable and well-accommodated without chairs.

Look, all people will remember about your wedding is how they were treated.  They won't remember your favors, or your colors, or your centerpieces, but if they were uncomfortable and irritated because they had to stand for an hour for your ceremony, you can be damn sure that it will be the one thing they'll still be talking about twenty years down the road.

aerinpegadrak

And for the record, simply disagreeing with you is not rude.  If you can't handle people having different opinions than yours, you really shouldn't be talking to strangers on the internet.

lalap69

Why do people ask anything at all if they're going to freak out when they don't hear what they want?

OP, GROW UP!

tommyandy

Check out United Rent All, they have an office in Raleigh.  They have chair rentals for as low as $1.25 each.  I'm looking for a second part time job to bolster the wedding budget, so maybe you could look into doing that too.  Could either of you borrow chairs from work or church?  What if you each borrowed chairs from friends & family?  They don't have to match.  Don't stress about some of the pp, wedding planning makes even the sweetest woman a harpy from time to time.   

Cray.anita

I went to a wedding at a park gazebo one time with a very small guest list (25 or so).  It was listed on the invitations that there were park benches close by if people wanted to wait there and then stand for the wedding, however for the best view guests may want to bring lawn chairs.  They had little markers for like 3 rows of lawn chairs to be set in line and had 2 "ushers" there to help people carry their chairs, set up them up, etc.  It worked out fine.

mica178

I've been to a couple beach weddings, and we had to stand for both of then, but there were a limited number of chairs provided for people who needed them (older people or people with medical conditions).  Given the size of your guest list, you should be able to let your guests know about the ceremony arrangement and find out if some can't stand for the whole time.  Then look into those collapsible beach chairs (I think I got some from Target for $3 last summer) or patio chairs or stools for those people.

Is your reception also on the beach?  If so, can you have the chairs for your reception do double-duty?  You might be able to enlist some of your wedding party to help move them to the ceremony site and back so you don't have to pay the catering staff extra to do that manual labor.

mswood1977

I say either check into renting chairs (i rented chairs for my reception for $0.95 a chair - that is a little over $70 for 75 chairs).  Or if you are having an informal type wedding have guest bring their own chairs (most people have a couple folding chairs at their home).  Though I think that renting chairs would be the best option.