Dinnerware, Linens - Wedding Catering

Unless you plan to host an equal number of people in your home or have a house of worship you can donate them to, it’s actually more economical and time saving to rent. People forget to factor in their time and labor at minimum wage per hour of cleaning/transportation/setup/tear down, etc. Instead of going through the caterer, get price quotes from local party rental companies. Many companies do not require you to clean everything before pickup.


If it’s informal, you can get heavy duty Chinet plates and heavy duty plastic silverware from Costco.

You can definitely purchase linens a bit cheaper than renting them from a company. However, I will tell you from my own experience, you need to really take into consideration all that goes into it and decide if it’s worth the cost savings. If you purchase them, you are going to have to have a place to store them (and let me tell you, they take up so much more room than you think they are going to!). You will have to transport them yourself to the reception venue, and will need to make sure there is a place you can spread them out and iron them, because they are going to be extremely creased from being folded. For my cousin’s wedding we ironed them all the night before, and they were all horribly creased again by the time they reached the venue the next morning! Luckily, it was a local wedding, so we had one of the bridesmaids run to her house and get an iron. Then the bride’s grandmother had to spend hours re-ironing all of them because everyone else was already busy with set up, hair and make up, etc. it was insanely time-consuming and inconvenient.

This was the deciding factor for us in choosing our wedding venue. We opted for an all inclusive, restaurant based venue where we weren't being nickeled and dimed for linens, cutlery and other miscellaneous items. That extra savings was put in to additional appetizers and a full open bar.

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This was why we went with an all-inclusive venue as well. Catering, bar service, tables, chairs, linens, plates, utensils, etc. were all included in the price, we didn't have to vet tons of vendors, no transportation fees, no setup/ tear down fees as everything is kept at the venue, and no need to worry about vendors getting lost since they work there. The overall cost was so much better than a blank-slate venue, and the peace of mind is a cherry on top.

View Quoted Comment I am a control feak. so "peace of mind" was FH's main goal 🤣 I just can't imagine having to worry about all the catering-related vendors on top of the few that I have!

View Quoted Comment Thank you for your helpful advice!

View Quoted Comment I’m definitely a DIY bride but I’m glad you mentioned your experience! Thank you!

Amazon is a great place to look. Facebook market place is also good for linens. For tablewear, if you’re not picky, you can always do the nice pretty plastic ones. It will make clean up easier too.

Our venue supplies linens and silverware, and glassware but we wanted to add chargers. We ended up finding some on Amazon without breaking the bank. You might be able to try something similar

I'd further consider labor and clean-up. If you choose rentals, they will collect everything as is. If you have a casual wedding, you can opt for nice looking paper disposables. If using plastic utensils, I would not serve anything like steak or chicken that needs cutting. You would just have to consider garbage duty and staffing unless you're okay with doing this in your wedding attire. Your venue should have rules about waste removal, so consider hiring staff.

I used 2 of my mom's linens for my sweetheart table and cake table, and had no time to iron or steam them beforehand. I let it go as it was for my table, but wrinkles can marr an otherwise beautiful setting (just like on a person). Good luck.

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That is a great reward to the restaurant when you fold back some of the savings into more benefit for them. I am partly assuming the business is not assuming a burden in this.