Your guide to event seating solutions, from chairs to tables and beyond.
Your guide to event seating solutions, from chairs to tables and beyond.
The chairs, tables, and tableware set the tone of a reception room before service starts. This guide covers the chair styles event teams use most, how each one suits a venue, and what to pair with them. Expo Hire supplies commercial furniture on a dry-hire basis, so we deliver, collect, and leave the setup to your crew. You can check live stock and prices online before you book.
Your chair choice changes the look of the room and the way staff work during setup. Chiavari chairs remain a popular choice for formal dining. Black frames suit corporate dinners and award nights. White frames fit marquee receptions and clean, modern rooms. Limewash frames work well in barns and country houses. Staff can stack them for transport and clear-down, and you can add seat pads in colours that match the rest of the layout.
If you want a curved timber look, choose the Wishbone chair. Its woven seat and shaped back work well in brand launches, fashion events, and high-end dining rooms. The oak Cross Back chair suits garden weddings, vineyard receptions, and marquee events with a rustic scheme. If you need more options, our wider chair hire range includes padded seats for long dinners and metal-frame styles for city venues.
Corporate dining and conference layouts need chairs that look smart and move fast. The Navy Banqueting Chair gives you a formal look with a padded seat for longer sessions. Crews can stack these chairs up to 10 high, which helps when a room changes from daytime conference to evening dinner.
If the event needs a cleaner look, many planners choose White Chiavari chairs. If the brief calls for light-up feature areas, our LED furniture range can add focal points around bars, entrances, or lounge zones.
Casual events need seating that keeps guests comfortable and leaves room to move. Networking events and relaxed conferences often use bean bags or pieces from our outdoor furniture range in terraces, lawns, and open-sided structures. These layouts give guests places to sit without locking the room into a strict dining plan.
Outdoor spaces also need chairs and tables that can handle weather and heavy footfall. Our outdoor range gives planners options for garden parties, sports hospitality, and summer receptions where staff need fast setup and reset.
Standing receptions work best when guests can move between bar, seating, and conversation points. Bar furniture helps you create those zones. Poseur tables pair with bar stools to support drinks receptions, launch parties, and evening networking.
Choose metal finishes for modern venues or timber finishes for a warmer look. Before you place the order, work out how many guests will stand and how many will need seats. That balance keeps the room active without leaving guests nowhere to sit.
Chairs only work when the table size matches the layout. A 6ft round banqueting table seats 10 to 12 guests and suits formal dining. A 6ft trestle table seats up to eight guests and works well for banquets, buffets, and back-of-house prep. Event crews also join trestles to build long dining runs or registration desks.
For drinks receptions or smaller breakout areas, add poseur tables or smaller options from our table hire range. The right table size gives guests enough room and lets catering staff serve without squeezing between chairs.
Linen changes the look of the room as much as the furniture. Our linen hire range covers cloths, napkins, and other table dressings for formal and informal events. White tablecloths suit dinners and weddings, while darker shades can frame brand colours or evening schemes.
If you want to dress chairs for a wedding or gala, add chair covers or sashes. Napkins finish the place setting and help tie the chair, table, and crockery choices together.
Outdoor events need seating, cover, and heat that match the site. Our outdoor furniture range includes bistro sets for smaller seating pockets and benches for larger groups. If the site needs shelter, add gazebos for cover from sun and rain.
When the temperature drops, many organisers add patio heaters. If food service runs outside, our BBQ hire range helps teams serve casual menus without moving guests indoors.
Your seating plan affects the catering setup from the first floor plan. Caterers use table sizes and chair counts to plan service routes, place settings, and clearing points. If you need more than furniture, we also supply crockery, cutlery, and glassware for the same event.
Our Send It Back Dirty service covers crockery, glassware, and cutlery. Your team can return those items unwashed, and we handle the cleaning in the hire price. Clients such as the BBC, ITV, HSBC, Cambridge University, and the Commonwealth Games have hired from our stock for major events.
We supply commercial furniture for event organisers, caterers, venue managers, schools, charities, care homes, armed forces units, and festival teams. Our EventPro® range gives you furniture built for repeat hire use and regular transport. We do not supply domestic customers.
Every order includes our Free Minor Damage Waiver, which covers minor scratches and wear. Other hire companies charge 2–3% of your order total for the same cover — on a typical £1,000 booking, that is up to £30 extra you keep in your pocket. We also do not ask for a security deposit. Orders over £1,000 can use our 25% advance deposit option.
You can source more than chairs from one order. Our furniture hire range covers dining rooms, backstage areas, VIP lounges, exhibition stands, and registration spaces. Event teams use the catalogue to build a full venue layout from one supplier.
Our depot team checks each item before dispatch, so your crew receives clean, tested stock ready for use on site.
We run 11 depots, with our head office and main depot in Birmingham. We deliver across England and Wales, with charges from £40 ex VAT based on road distance from the nearest depot. On delivery day, your team receives GPS tracking and an SMS ETA.
We deliver and collect on a dry-hire basis. Your crew handles setup and on-site management. If you want to collect, warehouse self-collection runs from our Birmingham depot, Monday to Friday, 7am to 3pm.
Check the chair style, table sizes, and guest numbers before you book. Our website shows live stock and pricing, so you can choose the items you need, select the dates, and confirm the order online. Pick your hire dates to check availability and book.
Six things no other hire company in the UK offers. We deliver and collect seven days a week — no other hire company does. We are the only hire company to offer live order tracking for both delivery and collection; track your driver in real time by order number and postcode. We check live stock and logistics availability before your order is confirmed, so every order is 100% guaranteed to arrive exactly as placed — no substitutions, no shortfalls. You choose morning or afternoon for both delivery and collection. We never charge a security or damage deposit. Every hire includes a Free Minor Damage Waiver at no extra charge — other companies charge 2–3% of your order total for the same cover. And with the widest product range in the event hire industry, most customers can source their entire event from a single supplier.
