Chair rental issue

bburkel

We're having our ceremony at Centennial Lakes.  I just contacted their preferred provider for chair rental - and it is going to cost us almost $1000 for 300 chairs.  Mainly because they only have 200 of each kind, and charge between 3 and 3.40 per chair for the actual chair and setup and delivery.  Then for the additional 100 chairs, they will charge an extra $50 for setup.

I'm wondering if it would be super tacky to include in our invitations that people can bring lawn chairs.  that way we'd only have to rent the 200 chairs for the main space and then those sitting in the stadium seating area could be in lawn chairs, or even on blankets. 

kelly6509

My opinion is yes- a bit tacky... unless your wedding is in your backyard and very small, I would not suggest you ask anyone to bring anything (but hopefully they'll bring a gift!). 

Can you work with any other rental providers? I would tell Centennial Lakes about your chair issue and then see if they would allow an alternate rental company due to their lack of inventory. Good luck!

wittyschaffy

Unless your contract says you HAVE to use a specific outside vendor for chairs), you're free to shop around.  Just because they're "preferred" doesn't mean that they're the best.  Just means that they've been a trustworthy and responsible vendor there in the past and they endorse them as a provider (or the site gets a kickback for every person that books chair rentals through the company - sad to say).  

courtney3544

I'm also having my wedding at Centennial Lakes. I'm not having as many people so I didn't run into the issue with chairs. I know their preferred vendor was less per chair than other companies I looked at. What about having the 200 chairs and then geting some white fabric to cover the concrete of the stadium seating so everything would look more tied together.

I originally wanted to use the stadium seating, so i didn't have to spend so much on chair rental, but my mom insisted on chairs only.

SSaltzman87

I'm having my wedding at Centennial too, but won't be using the ampitheater for my ceremony. I forget if they let you deviate or not for the chair provider, but I would look into either Midway Party Rental, Deckci Decor or Prairie Party Rental. Might even be worth checking Craigslist!

I wouldn't ask people to bring chairs.

flower_lover

The hard part about asking people to bring chairs is that you don't know how many people will actually do so. What if few people brought chairs, and you didn't rent enough for everybody else? Would you be comfortable with people having to stand if that was the case? Or alternatively, you would have to ask people to RSVP for chairs, telling you whether they were bringing any, and how many. You would have to think about whether that would be workable/comfortable, too.