Chair hire isn’t the first thing most couples think about when planning a wedding. That’s understandable — venue, caterer, photographer, and florist all feel more pressing. But chairs are one of the items that can genuinely run out at peak times, and leaving it too late creates a problem that can’t always be fixed with money.
For decades, corporate event seating defaulted to banqueting chairs — heavy, padded, hotel-supplied, and essentially identical from one venue to the next. Chiavari chairs were considered wedding furniture. They wouldn’t have made it onto a serious corporate event shortlist.
Chiavari chairs don’t need cushions to look good. They were designed two centuries before the modern “comfort over a four-hour wedding breakfast” expectation existed. But almost every Chiavari hire today goes out with a cushion of some kind, and the colour choice matters more than couples expect.
Most furniture has a shelf life. Styles come in, dominate for a decade or two, and disappear. Bentwood chairs had their moment. Ladder-backs had theirs. Tubular steel chairs were everywhere in the 1930s and are now mostly in design museums
The Chiavari chair is one of the few pieces of furniture still in regular use that has barely changed in over two centuries. The chair you’ll sit on at a London wedding next summer is, in almost every detail, the chair Giuseppe Gaetano Descalzi designed in a small Italian coastal town in 1807.
From across the room, you can’t tell them apart. Look closer, sit on one, lift one — the differences become clear. If you’re planning a wedding or event, the choice between resin and wooden Chiavari chairs affects more than just appearance. It affects cost, logistics, and what the chairs look like in your photos.
Walk into any chair hire company’s website and you’ll see the same thing: wedding photos, bridal styling guides, blog posts about colour schemes for the top table. Weddings dominate marketing because they drive demand.
When people think about event planning, they usually focus on the bigger visual elements first. The venue. The flowers. The lighting. The stage design. The tables.
This guide walks you through the top 10 wedding chair ideas in London, covering the most popular styles available through wedding chair hire London services
You’ve spent weeks- maybe months pulling your event together. The venue is locked in, the catering is sorted, and the guest list is finalised. Then the chairs arrive
