I hate chair covers!

Ok, hate is a strong word, but like Jon Gosselin feels toward his soon-to-be ex-wife, I despise chair covers. OK, wrong analogy to place in a wedding blog, but I guess it would make sense not to have them at my wedding if that's the way I feel about them (chair covers, not the Gosselins).

I suppose the reason why I never cared much for weddings is because the frilly ribbons, bows and flowers never appealed to me much. To have 100 or so chairs wrapped with bows all in one room is feminine over-kill. If you like chair covers, well you're in luck because most wedding venues will offer them to you...for an added cost. If you're like me, you have few options. Most venues come with standard chairs, the ones you don't mind sitting on at the conference meeting. But they add those ridiculous chair covers at weddings for a reason--to hide the fact that the chairs really look like these:

Am I nit-picking? Maybe. Afterall, I am on a budget. Do chairs really make a difference? Maybe not to everyone, but as you can see in the above photo, plain brown chairs don't exactly scream elegance. Still, I wouldn't pay the extra $3 a cover to hide ugly chairs. Yes, I said I was on a budget, but who really wants to look like they're on a budget? But Chiavari chairs cost about $10 each to rent. Is there a way around this? Some venues actually already come with better looking chairs. The restaurant we're hoping to book (I won't jinx ourselves by revealing the place until we've actually booked it) comes with chiavari chairs...and they're one of the cheapest places we've seen so far! What a bonus!