Linens: Buying vs Renting

Look at the cost, I wanted to rent for the environmental impact, but buying online was more cost effective.

If you can resell to another bride and recoup the whole loss (or at least partial), that will probably be the cheapest. But it is definitely more work. Also consider what happens if they get stained in someway? But if you decide to keep them, you could always use them for future events. So I'm not sure depends on your own personal priorities

Rent them.. you could probably resell them but if they r stained in the least bit they won't sell.

Less headache to rent

We are renting 90% of our linens. My FSIL bought all her linens and both her and FMIL said NEVER again.. they spent hours steaming them and said they wish they just rented.

We did, however, buy sequin table cloths for cake table and SW table. On Amazon, the prices were about the same as renting and we will resell them.

I'm buying them new. Renting was $650. Buying was $170. So I am going to get a bottle of wine and drink and steam one night. No biggie. And I'm certain I can resell them on my local FB group.

I would definitely rent. Who wants to take all that time? Not me! Ha

Rent them.

My Mom bought round tablecloths, form an online company to use at my baby shower and my sister's shower. Both times my grandmother spent a lot of time trying to get out the stains. My mother planned to donate them to my family's church, to use in their social hall.

The stains didn't come out so they were used as painting drop cloths.

Rent. Personally I cant imagine buying used ones from anyone unless its a markdown over half the price. Plus then you have to professionally clean them (which can be costly) and if they are stained no one will want them.

My personal vote it rent. Even though many people try to resell items online, it is never a guarantee. I would rather just rent then go through the hassle of selling to others. Also, if you rent, someone else is accountable for them not you.

I personally think renting is better. $100 is relatively cheap when you consider the time and possible headache you will have ironing them. You won't need to store them or attempt to resell them.

H & I got our table runners on Amazon... but now IDK what to do with them. I would have gladly donated them to the venue if someone had mentioned it when we were there. Guess i'll try selling them online, maybe another bride can use them.

We didn't look into renting but wish we had.

Its easier to rent, but for me buying was cheaper and I was on a tight budget. The table clothes we just threw in the dryer to get wrinkles out so all we had to iron was napkins. (I only had 60 though)

Normally buying is much less expensive than renting, so you must have found a great rental!

No one is going to recoup the whole cost as a pp mentioned (wishful thinking). Why would anyone pay the whole price for used linens so you pay nothing? You may be able to sell them for half what you paid, after a lot of work, steaming and cleaning.

Each of us has to decide our priority- money or time? Not all of us can afford to rent- many are forced into buying despite the downsides of steaming and cleaning.

Seriously you must have found a great deal. Ours were $2000 to rent and $950 to buy...

That being said, if I had the extra $$ I would have rented for sure just to make things easier.

I used efavormart.com to buy my linens and it was so cheap. About half the cost of renting.

We only have 40 people on our guest list, so I'm not worried about set up. But our venue includes it anyways!

A close family friend tried the buying route for her daughter's wedding last summer. They spent hours the week of the wedding ironing all of those stupid linens, and it seemed like it added a ton of stress when they should have been relaxing and enjoying those moments.

The only thing about buying is that there's 29 tables. So that's a LOT of linen to be steamed.

Also, less $$ in short term is a con because it's a short term thing. Short term it costs less money, but in the long term I could potentially resell most of them and the cost would be less overall from buying.

But also wouldn't have to clean them up if I rented. Soooooo.

LOTS TO CONSIDER