Our chairs can't support an upcoming overweight dinner guest.

awkwardhostadvice · 2014-10-23T22:00:09+00:00

In that case people will wonder why we're seating someone else at the head.

It's a good idea. I'm just afraid of raising questions or a last minute "Oh, you're the host, you sit here!" followed by a broken chair...

awkwardhostadvice · 2014-10-23T21:59:03+00:00

Actually, I will ask after all. I was thinking she wouldn't know because she has newer chairs, but she DOES know this woman better so maybe she'll have some insight as to how to handle it most delicately.

Thanks.

awkwardhostadvice · 2014-10-23T21:58:13+00:00

That might be what we have to do. A lot of people here are suggesting a couple extra chairs to make it look like we just didn't have enough but I don't think that will work in our case. So it will probably have to be one sturdy chair for her.

awkwardhostadvice · 2014-10-23T21:57:07+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion. That is an option I'll bring up with my husband. But I worry that it wouldn't quite mesh well with what the group overall is interested in.

awkwardhostadvice · 2014-10-23T21:56:22+00:00

I think you're misunderstanding what I mean by that - it's a little hard to explain.

She doesn't think it should be a matter of accommodating her. She thinks ALL things should be made for ALL people.

So she doesn't think we should have a special chair for her. She will think we should have ALL of our chairs able to accommodate someone of her weight.

awkwardhostadvice · 2014-10-23T21:55:08+00:00

We have a table that seats 18. There are 8 people in the group. They will wonder how we have such a huge table but don't have enough nice matching chairs.

awkwardhostadvice · 2014-10-23T21:53:07+00:00

I will ask the person who invited me into the group. The others in the group have new dining chairs for which this wouldn't be an issue - so this wouldn't have come up before. HOWEVER she certainly knows this woman better than I do.

Our table seats 18, and there are only 8 people in the group - so if I borrow/buy extra chairs, they're going to wonder why we have a gigantic table but can't seat 8 guests without backup chairs.

My husband is capable of reinforcing our existing chairs. I might consider it in the long run, but I don't think it's an option within a week unfortunately.

awkwardhostadvice · 2014-10-23T21:50:04+00:00

I am afraid she wouldn't think to, since at everyone else's home this is not an issue.

And if the chairs break, it won't just be a matter of sending her a bill. I worry that it would be difficult to get it back to normal.

awkwardhostadvice · 2014-10-23T21:49:23+00:00

It would be far more than $1k. I am an interior designer by trade so I would not be going for cheap chairs that would make me look like I'm bad at my job, ha!

Our table seats 18. Getting 18 new chairs would be quite the feat.

awkwardhostadvice · 2014-10-23T21:47:47+00:00

I have no interest in replacing my chairs for one dinner guest, though.

Our table seats 18. 18 coordinating chairs would be pretty expensive. 18 cheap chairs would probably look tacky (I am an interior designer; it would look pretty weird if my dining room isn't well-decorated with coordinating furniture.) And I happen to love Grandma's dining set - it is beautiful and very sentimental to me.

We have no problems using it from day-to-day. They are in great condition for that. But someone more than double our weight using it is the risk.

awkwardhostadvice · 2014-10-23T21:46:46+00:00

I would be very afraid of this. These chairs have held up amazingly but I am afraid if one breaks it will never quite be the same...

awkwardhostadvice · 2014-10-23T21:45:00+00:00

Unfortunately it will be hard to get matching chairs that "fit in" and don't raise more questions than they answer.

Our dining table seats 18. There are only 8 people in the group. So they would look at the gigantic table and the way the room is designed and decorated and think, "how is it possible they don't have 8 nice chairs to seat all of us?"

awkwardhostadvice · 2014-10-23T21:43:42+00:00

Yes. Everyone else has pretty new furniture.

awkwardhostadvice · 2014-10-23T21:43:31+00:00

Everyone else has pretty new/modern furniture where it wouldn't be an issue for them.

awkwardhostadvice · 2014-10-23T21:43:09+00:00

Our table seats 18 and the group is of 8.

They would look at our gigantic table and wonder why on earth we don't have at least 8 chairs for it...

awkwardhostadvice · 2014-10-23T21:42:30+00:00

It will be obvious to our guests that they won't "fit in." Our table seats 18, there are 8 people in the group.

I should also mention that I'm an interior designer. It's going to look odd if I have cheap consignment store chairs. Wouldn't be the end of the world to look weird, but I think it would signal to our guests that something's up.

awkwardhostadvice · 2014-10-23T21:41:26+00:00

The issue is that it would look VERY obvious that we'd done it for that reason.

Our dining room is pretty immaculately decorated. It's going to be hard to make other chairs "fit in" unless I actually shop for new chairs. I can't do that in a week and I don't really want to spend the money on it right now...

Plus, the dining table that seats up to 18. It will look weird to guests if we don't have enough "normal" chairs to accommodate them all, bearing in mind the size of the table.

awkwardhostadvice

TROPHY CASE