We're having a wedding reception at a church and plan to use their tables and chairs; however, the chairs are brown fold-up metal chairs (yuck!). We're not too much on the chair rental thing; does anyone know of any inexpensive and creative decorating ideas for these type of chairs? Thanks!
C, Richmond, VA
Hi- Last year I got married on the beach and the beach house where we had the reception had ugly! chairs. We wanted the room to look perfect so we went to the fabric store and bought cheap fabric. We chose white which was easy and cheap to find. We then cut them to make little slipcovers. They kind of looked like pillow cases because there was a little pocket on the top (to cover the back of the chair) and the rest of it kind of just hung over. It was super easy to sew. Just sewed on the sides and on the top.
Then we bought some cheap ribbon at the dollar store to tie around the backs and made bows. We also found these cute wedding ring favors from the dollar store and tied it to the bow. Flowers would be nice too. I hope that that makes sense! If that sounds at all appealing I could send you some pics. I believe that I have some good one.
By katharine
How about using contact paper? (03/08/2005)
How many chairs? This could get quite expensive if there are a lot of chairs? Let me say this...I have been to many, many, wedding receptions at my church fellowship hall (including my daughter's by the way) and never noticed the fold up chairs as being such...after all that is what they are. In fact, I think one might bring more attention to the fact that they are fold up chairs by trying to "mask" them. I really don't think anyone at this event will think about this but you. Save your money. (03/09/2005)
By Janean
What if you got a long strip of fabric and tie a bow on the back of the chairs or you could also get fabric and just put on the aisle chairs and put a bouquet of flowers on the aisle chairs, but other than that I wouldn't worry about it your guests are there to see you not the ugly metal chair. Good luck in you life long journey of marriage. (03/25/2005)
By Kassidy
To decorate folding chairs. I use 13 gallon garbage bags. White ones. I use tulle on the roll to tie bows around the back of the chairs. You can add flowers to the bows. You can also use black bags for a black tie affair. I haven't tried this, but you can use the very large lawn and leaf bags to cover the entire chair and then tie the bows. (03/26/2005)
By Gwen J.
Using the slipcover with white fabric idea- you can also just cut the fabric to size and staple the sides- then turn inside out. No one will ever know the difference. I saw this on a celebrity style decorating show. (07/07/2005)
By malinbo
What if you used pillow cases that matched the color scheme of the event. Slide the open end down over the back of the chairs and fold up the bottom twice. Then secure the fold with stick pins and decorate with a bow or just leave as is. (07/30/2005)
By Lisa H.
The lady helping me with the reception hall told me she thought that was the biggest waste of money. She said for the few short seconds that people enter the hall, they may notice the chairs are covered. But after that, when people fill up the chairs, when you look across the room, you don't even see the chairs! You just see people sitting. (04/05/2006)
By Carole
Dollar store tablecloths (if size permits cut in half) draped over each chair and secured with a ribbon tied around where the back and seat meet. (05/12/2006)
By jerry martin
A friend and I have done over 100 weddings in all kinds of places for girls in the community and we had to do 100 chairs cheap. We usually had to furnish stuff. We made all the wedding stuff and gave it to them for a wedding present. The chairs real old and awful looking but we got 72 inch cheap net, and covered the backs with a 1/2 yard piece; tying it bow style in the back. It only cost us 1.00 to do 6 chairs, we mixed her colors red, black we bought 20.00 worth and done 100 chair backs with net left over for decorating somethings and the birdseed bags.
I'm having a weeding in August, and we gonna have 180 guests-renting the chair covers. It's really expensive. Get the cheap tulle like here is the pic That's what I am doing. You need 3 yards of tulle. If you need more info. Let me know. (05/14/2008)
You could spray paint the chairs to match your color scheme. Then go to Family Dollar or Dollar General or Wal Mart and pick up some inexpensive sheers curtains (one curtain should do at least 2 chairs) in colors to go with your color scheme too. You can also pick up some pretty silk flowers or leaves or some other decoration and tie them like in the photo below that someone sent. (07/21/2009)
By Cricket
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