Pick the perfect furniture for your wedding. Furniture rentals for a wedding are a significant expense in the venue budget of a bride. Often, the venue itself will have set prices for their available furniture, or will prefer that you use a vendor it deals with often. Regardless if you use a recommended vendor or ferret a company out for yourself, you should be aware of the average cost of wedding furniture rentals so you know you are getting a good price. Round Tables Most of the decorating energy for a wedding will be focused on tables and table design. Since linens will be covering your table, concentrate on the shape you want rather than the appearance of the table. Round tables help spur conversation among guests, and typically cost around $8 for a 48 inch table that will seat six guests. Eight to 10 guests can be seated at larger tables of 60 to 66 inches, which usually cost between $8.30 and $8.50 per table. It is always less expensive to opt for a larger table because you will need fewer tables and centerpieces.
Square and Rectangular Tables For a more vintage look, you may consider square and rectangular tables that can stand alone or be lined up in a row. Tables that are 6 feet long typically seat six to eight people for between $6.75 and $8 each. A table that is 8 feet long that can seat up to 10 can be found for between $7 and $8.50 each. No matter the length, the width is usually 30 inches. Chairs Unless you are planning on covering a chair with rented linens, the look of the chair is important. Unlike the table rental, the chair will be on display, so more care should be taken in choosing its style. The least expensive chairs are the more traditional white padded and stained wood chairs. These cost around $2 each. A folding chair with no padding is even more economical at $1 each. A fancier chair choice is the Chiavari chair. These have more of a dining room chair appearance, which is more luxurious and suits vintage and upscale weddings the best. These can range from $5 to $8 depending upon the company.
Lounge Furniture A popular choice for reception decor for modern-styled weddings is the outdoor living room, or "lounge" style. This involves couches, ottomans and outdoor beds for a relaxed cocktail experience. Square ottomons can be placed separately or pushed together for combined seating for about $55 to $65. Square beds are a fun alternative to cocktail chairs, and are generally $70 to $85. Round beds are a bit pricier, around $195 each. Lounge furniture pieces can be sold as combinable separates, so you can mix and match within your price point for an original design that best suits your space. References Party Unlimited Rental: TablesThe Imperial Party Rentals: Price ListLounge Essence Events: Seating Photo Credits Digital Vision./Digital Vision/Getty Images MORE MUST-CLICKS: How to Make a Loft Apartment Work How to Make Cheap Outside Christmas Decorations How Much Money Should I Take for a Weekend in NYC? Wedding Centerpiece Ideas on a Budget Using Silk Flowers The Average Cost to Build a Porch Household Items Checklist for Newlyweds
Me and wedding chairs have a love/hate relationship. Basically, I either love a wedding chair or absolutely hate it, and there’s no in between. I think wedding chairs are one of the most important details at a wedding, and one that is often an after-thought for many brides. While we don’t all have an unlimited budget to rent the best/most creative wedding chairs on the market, there are several options that are just as affordable as your ho-hum folding chair. Take, for instance, the Vienna chair pictured below. Why have a boring ol’ banquet chair when you can have a well-designed (albeit plastic) one? I would even venture as far to say that wedding chairs are just as important as your flowers/centerpieces. You could even argue that they’re more important, considering you’ll have more of them on display. With that said, you can’t always get what you want if you don’t know what’s out there and for how much. Once you determine your wedding venue and space, the chairs will be an important part of your look.
Find the style you like and shop around to see who has the best prices. And don’t forget to NEGOTIATE!! If you find it cheaper somewhere else, get the rental company to cut you a better deal. Or see if you can get the chairs for 10-15 percent off from a vendor right off the bat. It never hurts to ask. Below are the most popular wedding chair rentals on the market today, and the average prices I’ve found them listed for (via the links below). If you’re looking to go outside the box for your wedding rentals, reach out to a vintage wedding rental company and have fun with mix/match chairs. While some vintage rental companies might charge you more, you’d be surprised how many are in line with the bigger, more standard event rental companies. Use this guide below to not only help you find which style wedding chair you like, but how much you can expect them to cost. If you get a quote from a wedding rental company that is way higher then is listed here, you can use this as a reference.
Plastic Cafe Vienna Chair: $1-$1.45 Plastic folding chair: $1.25-$1.75 Wood padded folding chairs: $2-$4.50 Bamboo/Rattan folding chair: $4-$5 Opera or Versailles: $6.95-$8.50 Cross Back (also occasionally known as a Vineyard): $12 Note: Comes with arms (Louis version) or without (Victoria version). Louis is typically a bit more expensive. Apex Tent and PartySo, you’re having a party! And you’ve figured out that many parties need things (tables, chairs, plates, napkins). There are two ways to get said things: 1) buy them 2) rent them. (Number 3, “Borrow them from someone you know who already bought them,” is maybe worth mentioning as well, but that’s a specific scenario we’re not going to cover today.) The question on your mind now is—how do you figure out whether to rent or to buy? And what kind of things are we talking about exactly? Most people have only ever rented apartments and cars before their weddings. But the truth is, lots and lots and lots of weddings involve at least one rental order.
(I’m actually having a hard time thinking of a single wedding I’ve done that didn’t have rented items.) If you’re hiring full service caterers, there’s a good chance they’ll be renting things for your wedding, and if you’re self-catering or using food-service only caterers, there’s a good chance you may not have thought about it yet, but you’ll end up wanting to place a rental order at some point in the planning process. So let’s say that you’re one of the aforementioned couples who will have to rent something for your wedding. Most of the weddings we execute involve at least the following: tables, tablecloths (called drapes in the industry), napkins, chairs, plates (often dinner, salad, and cake), forks, knives, and glasses (water, wine, beer, rocks as needed). Less universal but still relatively common items might include patio heaters, cocktail tables, table number stands, bread baskets, beverage dispensers and tubs, lounge furniture, and lighting. If you’re in a major metropolitan area, there are lots of rental companies available to you, and some differences between them.
You may be surprised to know that the major difference between them for most things isn’t price, but the quality of their items. Most of the rental companies we work with have extremely similar prices on the majority of rental items, but I know from experience that some of them tend to send linens that are too short, or stained, or just generally not as high quality as those of other companies. If you don’t have a caterer, planner, or other pro to ask, it may be worth going by some showrooms to look at the quality of their items in person. Other key differences between rental companies are delivery windows and charges; if dishes/glasses/silverware need to be returned scraped, rinsed, or washed (all of which are decidedly different amounts of labor); and willingness to work with you without having you setting up a professional account. If you’re handling your rental orders yourself, it’s probably worth calling a few different companies to ask them these questions and get a general quote started.
Now, let’s talk numbers. For the Greater San Francisco Bay Area, standard rentals tend to run along the lines of: (Please note, all numbers are approximate.) Could you buy these things for the same amount? My best friend’s thirtieth birthday party was in July, and he insisted on having people drink out of real glasses (…personal quirk), so in the two days beforehand we bought all the glasses at thrift stores for an average of about 50¢ each. They didn’t match, and we had one per person, so we had people write their names on them with a Sharpie. But it was a party in an industrial loft, and they were great. We also didn’t really have time or transportation resources to deal with rental glasses (most rental companies have a minimum order amount for delivery). You can certainly do the same for your wedding, if you’re okay spending the time searching through thrift stores and have the space to store them. Because, friends, storage is one of the dirty secrets of weddings—there’s a lot of stuff, and if it’s not living in a rental warehouse, it’s probably going to have to live in your house.
Do you have a basement/garage/spare bedroom that you’re okay having taken over with wedding stuff for a few months before your wedding? If not, this is probably another reason to rent. Something else to think about when looking into renting vs. buying is washing and cleaning. Rental dishes show up washed, and rental linens show up ironed. You can also generally return them unwashed. But if you’re buying these things? They’re going to have be washed both before and after the wedding, so make sure you have the labor to handle that. (Anyone who’s done it can tell you that washing 220 plates, even with a dishwasher, is not a small task.) Some other general things to note about rentals: How To Find Your Wedding Style Seating Chart Tips (That Won’t Make You Cry) Setting Up And Breaking Down Your WeddingEverything You Need To Know About Buying Alcohol For Your WeddingEverything You Wanted To Know About Timelines, Part I How to Have A Fun Wedding Photos by APW Sponsor Emily Takes Photos;