When I searched Flickr for seat covers, there was just one result for anything wedding related — everything else was toilet seat covers (I would never have made that connection!) and car seat covers. Sorry, when someone says seat covers, I think of weddings and how they brighten up a room. But that’s just me.

I think, if you look through the bridal magazines, seat covers seem to be what everyone is doing, but I don’t think that’s the case in reality. First off, they can be expensive — say you get seat covers at $5 each, but you have 500 guests. That’s another $2,500, excluding any fees for delivery, set up and pick-up. But I think they can be worth it, and I’ve got some pictures to prove it. Above, if you were wondering, is a wedding reception we decorated at the Our Lady Of the Angels Cathedral‘s conference center.

For example, here is a perfectly nice banquet room with no seat covers. The trouble with a lot of banquet rooms is that they are totally enclosed — no windows. You can barely see the pretty flowers (which are bright, with yellow and pink roses, pink stargazers and purple liatris) because its so dark.

Here is a similarly enclosed room with seat covers. See how it makes it more wedding-like?

The other thing that makes seat covers stand out is the sashes used to tie them. Above, at this wedding (I can’t remember where this is!), my mom had used two types of sashes. The linen ones were tied around the guest table chairs kind of like a belt, but the organza ones covered the entire back of the chair at the head tables, to make them stand out.

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Of course, you can get different types of sashes — the linen kind or the metallic, lamé type, like these silver ones above. The lamé type, of course, are only available in silver, gold and bronze. 🙂

You can also, of course, opt for the seat covers offered by your venue. This has become more common as seat covers become more popular. Hotels and restaurants, especially, have begun offering their own seat covers as part of the site rental deal (either their own or seat covers owned by a company they specially contract with). However, hotel seat covers often tend to be these type — especially fitted for whatever type of chair they have (and there are a lot of different types of ballroom chairs, let me tell ya) and sometimes not cleaned between uses. Ew. They often come in all white, because that’s easiest, so there’s no punching up the color with sashes. Sorry.

There are always a few ways to save on having seat covers. If you can whittle down the per-price to, say $3 or $5, you should also negotiate the fees. If you have a lot of family willing to help out, get them to pick up the seat covers, set them up, collect them and clean them. (The cleaning will really cost you if you don’t.) Or, negotiate a final price that includes all fees. Either way, there’s always a way to save money if you have your heart set on having seat covers.

By the way, my family does still offer seat covers for rental. 🙂 Just sayin’.
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