6 Reasons Not To Purchase Ugly Chairs When Opening a New Wedding Venue
by Kristin Binford - Successful Venue Owner and Secret Sharer
Chairs! One of the surprisingly-hard decisions when opening a new wedding venue.
The chairs you select for your new wedding venue are a very important decision. Don't take it lightly.
A few points to consider when buying chairs:
Folding or stacking? - Stacking are usually more visually appealing, but take up twice as much space.
If stacking - make sure you purchase the kind that stack. There are lots of beautiful chairs that are not designed to stack.
Look for wholesale options. Chairs are expensive.
Reach out to other venues for recommendations. There are huge process differences between folding and stacking chairs. Make sure you know what you are getting yourself into with each option.
Don't Purchase Ugly Chairs - Here's Why:
They will be in (almost) all of your reception area photos. You want to showcase your venue in the best light and ugly chairs don't add to the ambiance of your space.
If brides don't like them you may not book their wedding. Chairs matter. I know that might seem silly, but after touring hundreds and hundreds of brides at my venue Haue Valley, more comment on chairs than you would expect.
If you do book the wedding and they don't like your chairs, your couples will have the added expense of chair covers or replacement chairs. Wouldn't it be to your benefit that they could instead spend those budget dollars on more beautiful florals or other upgrades such as uplighting or draping that will make your space look great in photos?
If they rent other chairs, that means you have to move all-of-yours. This is a HUGE pain. You should probably have a fee in your contract to remove all of your chairs because it is a huge pain. Scratch that - just don't buy ugly chairs!
Many new venues will be investing in nice chairs. There will be new competitors coming into the market every year. You don't want ugly chairs to be the reason a bride books another venue.
Chairs are a longterm investment. It's hard to write the check for venue chairs, but they are an investment. We've hosted 200 weddings with our existing set, and we are definitely on borrowed time to replace them.
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