Choosing the right chairs for a wedding depends on the venue, the style of the day, and whether you need the same chairs for ceremony and reception. This guide covers the three main types, how many to hire, and what to expect on delivery day.
Choosing the right chairs for a wedding depends on the venue, the style of the day, and whether you need the same chairs for ceremony and reception. This guide covers the three main types, how many to hire, and what to expect on delivery day.
Wedding chair hire shapes the room plan and the load-in. The best chair depends on the venue and the look you want, plus whether your team will move the same chairs from ceremony to reception.
The Chiavari chair suits formal weddings and black-tie events. Its lightweight Italian frame stacks well and gives you the grid-pattern back that most couples recognise. The Chiavari Chair includes a padded seat and works well in marquee receptions and hotel banqueting suites.
Chiavari chairs work well when:
You can set them in rows for a ceremony and move them to tables for a reception, but your crew needs time for the room flip. Allow 30 to 45 minutes for a team of four to turn a room of 100 chairs. Seat pads are available separately and make a difference during a long dinner. Bare Chiavari seats suit shorter ceremonies.
Banqueting chairs suit hotel functions and larger indoor events. They give guests more padding than Chiavaris and keep people comfortable through a long meal. The Banqueting Chair uses a neutral fabric that fits formal and semi-formal settings. It weighs more than a Chiavari, so your crew needs to factor that in when they move large quantities between rooms.
Banqueting chairs suit:
A linen supplier often fits seat covers over banqueting chairs to change the colour or add a sash. Factor that into the timeline, dressing 100 chairs takes at least two hours for a small crew.
The White Folding Chair works best for outdoor ceremonies, garden parties and marquee weddings where you want a clean look without Chiavari pricing. Folding chair hire costs less per unit and is easier for crews to manage, the chairs stack well, travel on cage trolleys and set up fast without tools.
Use folding chairs for:
They have no padding, so they are less suitable for a long dinner unless you add pad hire.
For a ceremony-only setup, you need one chair per guest. If you reuse the same chairs for the reception tables, you still need one chair per guest, but you need a clear plan for the room flip.
If the ceremony and reception run in separate spaces with no time to move chairs between them, you need chairs for both setups at the same time. That can double the hire quantity, so confirm the venue layout and schedule before you order.
Ceremony rows are often set two chairs wide with a central aisle. A row of ten chairs takes about four metres of width. For 100 guests, that gives you ten rows of ten chairs and about eight metres of depth at standard 90cm row spacing.
For a round-table reception, eight to ten chairs per table is the norm. A 5ft (150cm) round table seats eight, and a 6ft (180cm) round table seats ten.
Our crew delivers chairs on trolleys and places them before your venue access time. Most full-service hire orders from Expo Hire include setup in position as standard.
Check venue access before booking. Some venues ban vehicles on grass, and some have narrow service corridors that slow the load-in. Tell us about any access restriction when you order.
Browse all chair hire options or contact us for a quote for your event.
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