Wedding Planning Articles
Rentals
...."Dress up your celebration"
OK, so you've scheduled your wedding and receptions site, contracted the caterer, and lined up your florist. You've chosen your colors and the style of your party: garden or ballroom, traditional or themed, formal or casual. As far as the setting for your wedding goes, its time to roll up your sleeves and get to the nitty-gritty …what specifically will the party look like?
What Is Included
Some sites provide practically everything you will need for the setting of your wedding and reception: tables, tablecloths, chairs, wedding arch, aisle runner, food, beverages, china, flatware, and glassware.
This type of service takes a lot of the decision making out of your hands, which is ideal for those brides who don't have the time or energy to go about planning every aspect of a wedding. Although much of the setup is already determined, you can easily personalize your wedding setup with additional decorating. Some options are elegant chair covers and centerpieces or specialty tablecloths. If your reception room has plain walls and ceilings, you can create great effects with perimeter potted plants and up lighting. You may also decorate with dramatic sheer fabric draped from the ceiling along with hundreds of twinkle lights.
Speak with a local rental company or decorator about your wedding decorating options. They can give you additional ideas plus show you examples of their previous work. They can also provide the needed rentals and installations to create your own wedding wonderland.
Unlike our example above, most sites do not provide most of the setup items you will want for your wedding. Most sites generally have a specific setting for the ceremony itself - an altar, arch, or gazebo along with ceremony chairs and reception tables and chairs. Some even provide a bar, linens, china, flatware, and glassware. When starting to plan how to decorate your site, first identify what your event site includes with their package. You will want to rent those items that are not included.
Selection Of Rental Items
Your foundation rental items will be tables, chairs, and linens (unless included). Unless you have decided to use disposable plates, flatware, and glassware, you will need these too. Check with a party rental company for these items. They generally have a good selection of dinnerware ranging from sleek simple white to ornate china with gold trim.
Ask your rental company about their policies. Most will drop your rentals at the site the morning of or the day before your wedding. Will this timing work with your site? What about pick up date and times? Who will set the tables and after the banquet, who will clear the tables, clean the dinnerware, and box it for pick up? You can generally arrange with your caterer to provide these services.
Now on to those rental items that can really make your wedding a stand out! A party rental company can provide practically limitless items to dress up your wedding. Tiny sliver candle lamps for your tables, elegant candelabras for the tables or hanging chandeliers from the ceiling, specialty linens in dozens of colors, textures, and patterns, table runners, decorative chairs or chair covers, huge silk trees, a wooden dance floor, and even a huge tent to hold the entire reception! The list goes on and on. Anything you can think of, a party rental company has likely done it before.
As you can see, rentals are a great way to dress up your wedding without incurring the cost of purchase. Because assorted items needed for your wedding and reception may come from a variety of sources, check with your wedding site, caterer, and florist to thoroughly understand what they will be providing for your wedding. Once you know what these service providers include, you can begin working on your list of items that you will want to rent from a party store.