Plastic, paper or ceramic plates

Your caterer only provides paper? What does your barn venue provide, or is this personal property? Who will do the clean up and breakdown of tables and chairs?

View Quoted Comment Barn venue provides linens, tables, chairs. We’re responsible for clean up. But given it’s only 45 guests I figured it wouldn’t be too hard. The vendors take care of their things which would just leave us with plates, center pieces and decorations. But the venue has TONS of decorations which we’ll be using. We’re only bringing the center pieces because the venue can provide with all the accent smaller decorations like signs, accent tables, etc.

View Quoted Comment O I forgot to mention we’re having a bbq style buffet. It was one of the few places that offered this as well as bar service. I didn’t want to have to go through another caterer for bar. We’re having open bar because I don’t want to deal with purchasing the Booz especially not knowing how much we would need.

Go with what is easiest and makes the most sense in your budget. We used the free plastic plates our caterer provided, and I think it fit with our relaxed, rustic, elegant vide without looking cheap.

View Quoted Comment O wow that looks very nice!

If you want china, you can rent it much cheaper than you can buy it and aren’t responsible for washing dishes or trying to sell them afterwards. If you want paper plates, skip the caterer and go with the heavy duty Chinet plates from Costco. You will need extras because food safety laws from the health department mandate a clean plate each trip through the buffet.

View Quoted Comment If we go with the renting option do we also need extras given the buffet style?

We are just renting china from our caterer. For the rentals we were quoted about $900 for 65 people, and that includes the $350 rental delivery fee and $170.63 rental coordination fee. You could probably get away from with paper plates for BBQ, but we are doing filet mignon entree so paper plates won’t work well for us. I think we’ll do paper/plastic plates for cake!


I just looked at the rental item cost per person, not including rental and service fees, and it’s about $4.20 per person to rent china and stainless steel silverware.

If you want to go the plastic plate route, check out Oriental Trading Company. So many of their 'dishes' are quite elegant looking! https://www.orientaltrading.com/party-supplies/party-tableware/party-plates/wedding-a1-551217+1555-1.fltr

View Quoted Comment

Yes, absolutely. A person should not approach a buffet table of fresh food with a dirty plate.

Best wishes finding what works for you. I hope renting is an affordable option for the sustainability and look, but also because someone will cart out those dishes for you. If you do go plastic for the bar, you have options besides red solo cups. They do make clear drinking glasses from tumblers to champagne flutes. Or you can do beer.

View Quoted Comment Agree with this

Dollar tree online could be the most cost effective, even cheaper than some of the fancier plastic options or rentals. You can order on bulk on their website and just get some basic white dinner plates.

Omg so I’m so upset because I thought I saved a video on tiktok about plates. There was a post about these plates she found on Amazon I think and they actually looked cute!! I’m trying to see if I can find it again. If I do I’ll share it!