Linens: Rent vs. Buy

For me, it was cheaper to buy them. It came out to about $3 less per tablecloth. Plus, when I'm done, I'll resell them on eBay or the weddingbee.com classifieds and recoup some of my 'investment.'

The downside- the day before the wedding, I have to launder them all and I'll be transporting them home dirty... It's a trade off.

I have found that, at least in my neck of the woods (small rural town in MI), it costs about the same to rent vs buy. The lowest rental quote I've gotten is $8 per tablecloth, likewise that is the same as the lowest price I've found to buy them online.

I wasn't so lucky. My rental places were around $13-17 per tablecloth. I bought them onlien for around $8.

It's time to price them out, and see what you can find.

For me the cheapest option is buying the material and making my own. About 15 table cloths will cost me about $100 bucks or less.

Buying is a lot cheaper than renting. The cheapest rental I found was for $17 for linen and I bought them for $8! I bought decorations too because it was cheaper than renting. The only thing I'm renting is chairs.

When I was doing my research, it was about $2 cheaper for me to buy. However I am actually going to rent them because I need a little more convenience with the set up, take down, transportation and laundering. I don't get a lot of set up/take down time at my venue.

If the price difference was bigger or we were having a ton of tables or I had all the time in the world to set up I'd probably buy. All in all it's going to cost me about $40 more to rent but the time and convenience factor makes it worth it to me.

See, I'm in a different boat than b:.

I have limited time for setup- so I can't be waiting on a linen company to make deliveries. Table cloths going on have to happen first- and right on time. I can't risk a delivery company being late... That was another reason for *ME* to buy.

We bought our linens on craigslist.com. A business owner was selling them because she no longer needed them. I paid under $3 a linen! They were white with no stains we will be turning around and selling them to my mother- shes starting a rental company after we are married. Shes buying everything off us!

My mom and I calculated out that if we buy the linens instead of renting them from the caterers it would be half as expensive. I think it varies depending on where you get your linens from but over all, I would say it's cheaper to buy than rent. Also, when the wedding is over, you can sell your linens and make some money back.

Where is everyone buying their tablecloths for $8? Is is just from someone online who used them before?

The cheapest I've found is $12 per 120 inch tablecloth, but that is brand new at this site: www.tableclothsfactory.com

For me, it was cheaper to buy plus then I have the tablecloths and can sell them afterwards recouping some cost.

The only problem with buying for me is that we would have to wash and iron them, transport them without getting wrinkled and set them up since our cartering company will only set up theirs. it would have saved about $8 per tablecloth to buy but I dont want to be ironing and stressing on my wedding day so im renting!

I am finding out too that it is cheaper to buy than rent. And I know that I am going to have to be responsible for cleaning them and ironing them, but bottom line I will be saving money. I have been looking at linentablecloth.com, cvlinen.com, and efavormart.com for affordable linens. Has anyone bought linens from any of these sites?

I've bought from linentablecloth.com. They were good quality, very affordable and the customer service was awesome. I was helping plan my cousin's wedding and we just ordered one of each item we needed (so basically we were "sampling" their service) and I was thoroughly impressed. The wedding never happened though so we never went and bought a huge order.

I will be buying, the cheapest I've found to rent them are double of whatever size table the tablecloth will fit is.. example: say a 6ft rectangle banquet table costs $8, the table cloth cost $16. I found table clothes on from where Jessica H got her's from for half that!

Need champagne satin ones?! I am seeling mine!

I also bought from linentablecloth.com, but I used their eBay store. They have different prices on their own site and their eBay store. They run specials pretty often, so wait for one of them!

Or look at preowned table cloths somewhere...

It was $10 to rent them thru my venue, $12.50 to buy them brand new, or $15 thru my catering company.

We found someone on craigslist selling them for $9 plus she threw in a lot of rectangular ones for free. It ended up costing me a little more to buy then rent thru my venue because the lady was selling 20 round and i only needed 15, but I figure I can re-sell and a lot of the cost will be absorbed.

If your wedding date wasn't before mine i would sell them to you when i was done. :\

Thanks for the recommendations for linentablecloth.com. I am needing black linens and I am probably going to make black & ivory damask table squares.

I also bought from linentablecloth.com and used the discount code frogslap.com. I paid $300 less than what it would have cost me to rent. The chair covers, tablerunners, napkins, and tablecloths look and feel really nice.