Real China vs. "Look Alike" Help

Personally, I think if your venue is on the elegant side, the "look alike" china would be out of place. If it were me, and if it's possible, I would cut something out to get the real deal. If your budget is absolutely positively maxed though, just do what you can afford. In the long run I don't think it matters but it would be a "nice to have."

Do you have a catering staff that will be rinsing out glassware throughout the night or do you need to provide enough cups/glasses to get through the evening? Glassware was a much bigger cost to us than china.

No catering staff but, it's an option still trying to creatively figure this one out. I definitely don't want to do anything out of place BUT I have never experienced the look allikes to know whether it's a possible alternative. I've only been to a wedding where real china, paper plates, and those clear plastic ones that you get from Sam's were used so I'm hoping these will work to setup on the buffet table, otherwise I will be back to the drawing board.

I got hard plastic plates from smarty had a party. they seem sturdy and look nice! Although I am doing a park, bbq wedding I didnt want to just have regular old paper plates for my wedding. haha.

Do you have a photo of the look alikes?

Maybe I'm just not picturing in my head exactly what you mean.

If you don't have catering staff, that's an other consideration, b/c somebody would have to gather up, scrape/wash and return all those dishes.

Good idea, I will post a pic. (no scraping or washing.... they are listed as disposable)...Oh, and I saw several on smarty had a party's website as well.

Here are some of the samples I ordered.....

And these....

I think they look nice, and really who is going to notice they are plastic instead of real china?

Based on the photos, look-a-likes might not be such a bad idea depending on cost per plate/setting and your guest list.....

Those look great! at the end of the day who is really gonna remember if they are plastic or not.

Looks nice. Where are you ordering from?

I love the last sample that is beautiful and it looks real from this end. I wanted to use look alike but we decided to bite the bullet only casue our venue is super elegnat. We are paying 3.90 per person for plates and siverlware and wine and water goblets.

Where is your reception being held? What is the menu?

This will dictate what you do.

Honestly, I hate disposable dinnerware. But, then, I do not do events in outdoor venues, nor venues such as churches, halls and such.

PS, "looks real" and are real, two different things.

We had the look-alikes. Your guests will know they are not real china, as they are much lighter weight than the real china. The issue is whether that is important to you. We were doing a heavy apps reception, and were happy with "china" that looked nice, even if it clearly wasn't real. I might have felt differently for a sit-down dinner.

I was also checking out Smartyhadaparty.com. I'm really curious as to what the imitation china looks like as well. Be sure to update us when you get your samples please

By the time you buy enough nice disposable china to handle a party, you're probably going to spend just as much as you would spend to rent china. I'd do disposable glasses, real china and real flatware and real linen.

Thanks ladies for all your comments: decisions....decisions....

I found these on divinedisposables.com Once the samples arrive I will be sure to come back and update. I may LOVE them, but then again they MAY turn out to be too cheesy for us. Not worried about if my guests will know it's not real china because that's like a no brainer. Again, just searching for something outside the box that still has a nice presentation. I guess this is NEW to all of us...LOL sooooo we shall see.

Oh and the menu is a simple buffet: dinner rolls, salad, chicken breast, roasted potatoes, green beans, rice pilaf

They look very pretty from the pictures, a lot nicer than the standard paper or ordinary plastic plates. Since, you don't have any catering staff to clean up and stuff, I don't see a problem with using them.

I ordered the cream with gold rim look-alikes. Our wedding and reception are on the formal side and I wasn't crazy about the clear ones. These seem very nice and fit the budget. FH was very impressed!