Furniture Rentals / Table and Chair Rentals

Table and chair rentals, and how many of each you really need

Table and chair rentals look like the simplest line on an event order and they are the one most often ordered wrong. The count is easy. The mix is not, and the mix is what decides whether the room feels open or packed and whether your caterer can get between the tables.

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Every seating figure on this page is a standard industry planning number used across the rental trade. None of it is a description of our stock. Tell us your date and we will send what is actually available for it.

The real question

Not how many chairs. How many tables, in what shape, in that space

Divide your guest count by the number a table seats and you get a table count. That part takes ten seconds and almost nobody gets it wrong. What goes wrong is everything after it.

The same 150 guests laid out on rounds and laid out on long banquet tables produce two different rooms. They occupy different amounts of floor, they leave different aisles and they change how much space is left for a dance floor and a bar. One of those layouts will fit the tent you were quoted and the other one will not.

So the order to work in is guest count, then table shape, then the space the layout needs, and only then the structure that goes over it. If you have a tent size in mind, bring it and we will check the layout against it rather than the other way round. That sizing conversation lives with our tent rentals team and goes much faster once the mix is decided.

The table families

What each shape is for, and what it seats

Four families cover almost every event. The seating figures below are the planning bands the rental trade works to, and the lower number in each band is the comfortable one.

STANDARD INDUSTRY PLANNING NUMBERS, NOT A STATEMENT OF TGIF STOCK
Table	Plans for	What it is good at
48 inch round	6 to 8 guests	Small rooms and tight footprints. Seats fewer people in less floor, which is useful when the space is the constraint rather than the head count.
60 inch round	8 to 10 guests	The default dinner table across the industry. Eight is comfortable, ten is a squeeze once chargers and glassware are on it. Most weddings are planned on this table.
72 inch round	10 to 12 guests	Fewer tables for the same head count, which frees floor elsewhere. The trade is width: guests across a 72 inch table are far enough apart that the conversation splits in two.
6 foot rectangle	6 to 8 guests	The working table of every event. Buffets, bars, gifts, back of house. It also seats guests, but its real job is usually holding something.
8 foot banquet	8 to 10 guests	Long-table dining and buffet runs. Put end to end it builds the single long table look, where the planning number is per table and the ends get absorbed at each joint.
Cocktail and highboy	3 to 4 standing	Standing surfaces for cocktail hour. Nobody sits, everybody uses one. Count these against the standing hours, not the dinner count.
Serpentine and specialty	Not a seating table	Curved sections that join into arcs and circles. Used to wrap a bar, curve a buffet or build a rounded head table. They shape a room rather than seat it.

Once the shape is settled, the linen follows it. A drop that hangs correctly on a 60 inch round is the wrong size for an 8 foot banquet, so the table list and the linen rentals get ordered together rather than a week apart.

Table mix planner

Your guest count, your table shape, your real order

Pick a guest count band, then how you want the room to look. You get the table mix, the chair count and the tables that are not on your list yet. These are planning numbers to start a conversation with, not a quote.

Worked at around 48 seated guests. At this size the room is small enough that the shape you choose changes the whole feel of it.

What you order	Planning figure
The table mix	Six 60 inch rounds at eight a table. Two 6 foot rectangles for food and one for the bar. Four to six cocktail tables for the standing hour.
The chair count	48 dining chairs plus two or three spare. If a ceremony happens on the same site, either add a separate set or plan the time to reset them.
Not on your list yet	Gift and card table, cake or dessert table, a table for the bar back. Three small tables, and all three get noticed if they are missing.

What you order	Planning figure
The table mix	Two long runs of three 8 foot banquet tables, seating around 24 a run. One 6 foot rectangle for food, one for the bar, four cocktail tables.
The chair count	48 chairs, and check the ends. A run of joined tables loses or gains seats at each joint depending on whether you seat the heads.
Not on your list yet	Gift and card table, cake table, bar back table. Long-table layouts also want a small side table for anything that would otherwise sit on the dining surface.

What you order	Planning figure
The table mix	One long run of three 8 foot banquets for the hosts and immediate family at around 24, plus three 60 inch rounds at eight for everyone else. Two 6 foot rectangles and four cocktail tables.
The chair count	48 dining chairs plus spares. A mixed layout is the one where the chair count most often drifts, so count the seats on the drawing rather than off the guest list.
Not on your list yet	Gift and card table, cake table, bar back table. A mixed room also wants a clear spot for the escort cards, because guests now have to find a shape as well as a number.

Worked at around 80 seated guests. This is the size where aisles start to matter, because the caterer now has to move between tables with plates rather than around them.

What you order	Planning figure
The table mix	Ten 60 inch rounds at eight. Three 6 foot rectangles for a buffet run, one or two for the bar, eight cocktail tables for the standing hour.
The chair count	80 dining chairs plus around five spare. Add ceremony seating separately if the ceremony is on the property and you do not want a reset.
Not on your list yet	Gift, cake, escort card, bar back and a table for the band or the DJ to put equipment on. Five small tables at this size, and the DJ one is the one people forget.

What you order	Planning figure
The table mix	Three long runs of four 8 foot banquets, seating roughly 28 a run. Three 6 foot rectangles for food, two for the bar, eight cocktail tables.
The chair count	80 chairs plus spares. Long runs need room behind every chair on both sides, so measure the aisle at the widest point a chair reaches when it is pulled out.
Not on your list yet	Gift, cake, escort card, bar back, DJ or band table. With long tables, a separate table for water and coffee service keeps the runs clear.

What you order	Planning figure
The table mix	One long run of four 8 foot banquets at around 28 as the spine of the room, six 60 inch rounds at eight around it, three 6 foot rectangles and eight cocktail tables.
The chair count	80 chairs plus five spare. Mixed rooms look best when the long run sits on the axis of the tent and the rounds sit either side of it, so draw it before you count.
Not on your list yet	Gift, cake, escort card, bar back, DJ table. A mixed layout makes the escort card table more useful, not less.

Worked at around 150 seated guests. At this size the dance floor, the bar and the service route take as much planning as the dining tables do.

What you order	Planning figure
The table mix	Nineteen 60 inch rounds at eight, or sixteen if some go to ten. Four to five 6 foot rectangles for a double buffet line, two bars, twelve to fifteen cocktail tables.
The chair count	150 dining chairs plus eight to ten spare. Spares stop being optional at this size, because a broken or wet chair on the day is a real problem rather than an inconvenience.
Not on your list yet	Gift, cake, two escort card tables so 150 people do not queue at one, bar back tables for two bars, a DJ or band table and a table for the photographer's cases.

What you order	Planning figure
The table mix	Five or six long runs of four to five 8 foot banquets. Five 6 foot rectangles for food, two bars, fifteen cocktail tables. Serpentine sections if you want the bars curved rather than straight.
The chair count	150 chairs plus ten spare. Long runs at this scale eat floor width fast, so the aisle between two parallel runs is the measurement that decides whether the layout works.
Not on your list yet	Gift, cake, escort cards, two bar backs, DJ or band table, plus service tables at the end of each run so staff are not walking the full length with plates.

What you order	Planning figure
The table mix	Two long runs of five 8 foot banquets seating around 70 between them, ten 60 inch rounds at eight for the rest, five 6 foot rectangles, two bars and fifteen cocktail tables.
The chair count	150 chairs plus ten spare, and the chair family should stay the same across both shapes. Mixing shapes reads as designed. Mixing chairs reads as short supply.
Not on your list yet	Gift, cake, escort cards, bar backs, DJ or band table, service tables. At 150 guests this list is six to eight tables on its own.

Worked at around 220 seated guests. Past this point every extra table costs floor twice over, once for the table and once for the route around it.

What you order	Planning figure
The table mix	Twenty two 60 inch rounds at ten, or twenty eight at eight if you want the room to breathe. Six to eight 6 foot rectangles across two buffet lines, two or three bars, twenty cocktail tables.
The chair count	220 dining chairs plus fifteen spare. This is also the point where 72 inch rounds start to pay, because four fewer tables is four fewer aisles to leave room for.
Not on your list yet	Gift, cake, two or three escort card tables, bar backs for every bar, a band table, service tables, and a check-in or welcome table if guests arrive over a long window.

What you order	Planning figure
The table mix	Eight long runs of five 8 foot banquets, set in pairs with a wide service aisle between pairs. Eight 6 foot rectangles, three bars built with serpentine ends, twenty cocktail tables.
The chair count	220 chairs plus fifteen spare. At this scale all-rectangle layouts are usually chosen for the look, and they need more floor than rounds do for the same head count.
Not on your list yet	Gift, cake, escort cards, bar backs, band table, service tables at both ends of every run, and a staging table near the kitchen or the catering tent.

What you order	Planning figure
The table mix	Three long runs of five 8 foot banquets seating around 105, fourteen 60 inch rounds at eight for the rest, eight 6 foot rectangles, three bars and twenty cocktail tables.
The chair count	220 chairs plus fifteen spare. Keep one chair family across the whole room and let the table shapes do the visual work.
Not on your list yet	Gift, cake, escort cards, bar backs, band table, service tables, welcome table. At 220 guests the tables nobody listed can add up to ten pieces.

Shape and feel

Rounds and rectangles build two different rooms

Rounds

Everyone at a round can see everyone else at it, which makes a table of strangers work. Rounds pack more people into less floor for the same comfort, and they leave aisles running in every direction, so service reaches a table from any side. The cost is that the room breaks into small separate conversations and a head table never quite anchors the space.

Rectangles and long tables

Long runs give a room an axis and a center, which photographs better and makes a tent feel like a hall rather than a field of tables. Guests talk to the four or five people nearest them and to nobody across the room. They take more floor than rounds for the same head count, and the aisles run in one direction only, so service has to be planned rather than assumed. On a lawn they need genuinely level ground, which is where event flooring rentals come in.

The chair families

Five chairs, and what each one is really for

Chairs are the piece guests touch for the longest and notice the most. Pick one family and use it across the whole room.

Folding chairs

The workhorse. Light, stackable and quick to reset, which matters when a ceremony space has to become something else in twenty minutes. Light enough not to sink into a lawn.

Garden chairs

A step up in look while staying practical outdoors. The usual choice for an outdoor ceremony where folding chairs feel too plain and a delicate chair would be wrong on grass.

Chiavari chairs

The wedding standard. A slim frame means a room of them reads light rather than crowded, which is what you want when tables sit close together. They want firm, level ground and they should not be left out in rain.

Cross back chairs

The warmer alternative, usually wooden, suited to long tables and rooms meant to feel rustic rather than formal. Heavier than a chiavari and better on flooring than on grass.

Bar stools

Counted separately from dining chairs and almost always under-ordered. Stools at the bar and beside highboys are what stop a bar from being somewhere people only visit.

One family, one room

Two chair families in one space reads as a shortage rather than a choice. If you need ceremony and dining chairs, use the same chair for both or keep the two spaces visually separate.

Capacity

What a table seats and what it seats comfortably

Every seating figure in this trade is a range, and the top of the range assumes a bare table. Put a charger, a full place setting, three glasses, a centerpiece and a menu card on it and the same table gets tighter fast. Ten at a 60 inch round is a real number and it is also a number where elbows touch all night.

The same thing happens to the room. A layout that fits on paper at the maximum seating figure leaves no aisle, and the aisle is how the food arrives and how guests reach the dance floor without crossing behind six chairs. So plan on the lower number in the band and treat the upper one as the answer to a late guest count. It costs one more table and it is the difference between a room people compliment and a room people pick their way through.

Tell us what is going on the table as well as how many people are sitting at it. A plated dinner, a family-style service and a buffet all need different amounts of table surface for the same guest count, and that changes the mix before it changes the count.

Plan on the lower number Aisles are not spare floor Family style needs more surface Spare chairs are not optional

The missing line items

The tables nobody puts on the list

These are small, cheap and they hold the event together. Every one of them is noticed when it is absent and invisible when it is there.

The gift and card table

Near the entrance, in sight of someone, and bigger than you think. Gifts pile up through the first hour and a small table ends with a stack on the floor beside it.

The cake or dessert table

Level, firm underfoot, out of direct sun and with a clear approach, because at some point everyone in the room will stand around it at once with a phone.

The escort card table

Placed where arriving guests meet it before the bar, not after. One works to about 120 guests. Past that, two split alphabetically stop the queue at the door.

The DJ or band table

Always needed, because equipment has to sit on something. Ask your entertainment what they want before the order goes in rather than hunting for a spare on the day.

Buffet and service tables

More tables than people expect, once plates, chafers, serving space and a drinks run are laid out. Your caterer will have a number, so ask for it early.

Bar and bar back tables

A bar needs a working surface behind it for ice, bottles and glassware. Without one, all of that ends up on the guest side where everyone can see it.

On a full wedding day these working tables sit alongside the ceremony seating and the reception on one order, which our weddings page walks through. A lounge area, covered on lounge furniture rentals, takes the pressure off the dining chairs once dinner is over.

Browse and build your list

See the tables and chairs available for your date

Tables

Chairs

Chiavari chairs

Stools

What hosts say

Reviews from Long Island events

"I had a corporate event with TGIF, and I still can't get over how easy they made everything. Every detail needed to be perfect, and somehow the result was even better than perfect."

Chase Tarantino, Google review

"TGIF provided excellent communication and great service. Our party was a huge success, and everything was delivered at a great price. I will definitely use them again and recommend them to anyone planning an event."

Ryan Khezri, Google review

Straight answers

Questions we get about tables and chairs

Do the chairs come set up at the tables?

Tell us which you want and it goes on the order. Tables and chairs can be delivered stacked for your caterer or your planner to set, or our crew can set them to your layout. Setting is the usual choice for a large event, because a room of 150 chairs takes longer to place than people expect and it is not a job for the morning of the wedding.

How many extra chairs should I order?

A handful at a small event and around five percent at a large one. Spares cover a late guest, a chair that gets wet and the seat somebody needs somewhere the layout did not plan for. They cost very little and they remove a whole category of problem on the day.

Can we use the same chairs for the ceremony and the dinner?

Often yes, and it is a sensible saving, but it needs a plan and a window of time. Somebody has to move and reset the chairs while guests are at cocktail hour, and that somebody has to be agreed in advance. If the two spaces are far apart or the window is short, two sets is the calmer answer.

Will tables and chairs sit flat on my lawn?

On firm, level ground, yes. On soft ground, a slope or anywhere that has had rain in the days before, a table on grass rocks and chair legs sink, and both get worse through the evening. That is the usual reason flooring goes under a dining area, and it is worth deciding at the site visit rather than on the day.

What decides what a table and chair order costs?

The piece count first, then the chair family, since a folding chair and a chiavari are different items. After that it is the delivery and the labor: how far the site is from Holtsville, how long the carry is from the truck, whether we are setting the room or dropping stacks, and whether it is one trip with the rest of your order or a separate visit.

Next step

Send us the guest count and we will send back the mix

Tell us how many are coming, what the meal looks like and where the event is. We will come back with a table list, a chair count and the tables you have not thought of. Family owned since 1975, out of our own warehouse in Holtsville.

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