1. Choose your wedding venue wisely. 

— If you choose a venue  that already includes tables and chairs, you will save a lot of money since you won’t need to rent them anymore. The same goes for a tent. We looked at one venue that we loved.  It was an arboretum, but the size wasn’t quite big enough for the number of guests we wanted to invite. So we looked into renting a tent to place nearby, but the logistics were tricky. We would have had to reserve the site for 3 days: one day ahead for the company to set up the tent, the day of the wedding, and an extra day for them to come back and take it down. Plus, we would have had to rent all the tables, chairs, and a dance floor to go inside the tent. It was cost-prohibitive for us.

2. Make a list of any additional equipment that needs to be rented.

Think through the entire event, and consider what types of furnishings and equipment you will need for the ceremony and the reception.

Try to use what you already own or can borrow from friends or family members to save money, then rent the rest. (For a helpful worksheet for figuring out what to rent, see the free download at the end of the post) 

For my first daughter’s wedding, we actually did not need to rent anything because it was a simple wedding and finger food reception, all at one site. We rented an enclosed lodge at a park and it included chairs, tables, and a kitchen. We did not need to rent any additional equipment. We brought in a tall table and stools from her grandmother’s house to be the sweetheart table instead of renting them.

For my second daughter’s wedding we wanted to have the ceremony outside at a park, so we rented chairs for the ceremony. The reception was inside a nearby lodge. Even though the venue came with large round tables which were great for seating our guests, we realized that we needed a few additional tables for the caterer’s food, the cake, gifts, and the bartender. . We also wanted a smaller half-circle table for the “sweetheart” table where the bride and groom would sit. We decided to lug a few tables from home, and rented the remaining pieces  We also decided to rent tablecloths for all of the tables and chair covers for just the bride and groom.

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

3. Choose which items to buy instead of rent. 

Sometimes purchasing an item is a better deal than renting it, especially if you can use it again or pass it on to other mothers of the bride. For example, we wanted to get an arch for the bride and groom to stand in front of during the ceremony. We looked into the cost of renting one and compared it to the cost of buying one, and they were about the same. We found an arch that we liked online, that was on sale, so we bought it. This suggestion comes with a caveat, however, because we had to assemble it, and it was more complicated than we anticipated. Thankfully  we figured it out, and we now have a beautiful arch that we can use in the garden. We will always remember my daughter’s wedding every time we see it.

4. Decide about tablecloths. 

Some people choose to buy tablecloths online and then resell them afterwards. Once again,we noticed that the cost was about the same to buy them or rent them. However, when you buy them online, they will come folded up in neat packages, which means lots of creases and wrinkles that you will need to iron out before the wedding. This can be a big undertaking, especially if you don’t like to iron! Plus, if you buy them yourself and want to resell them, you will have to wash them all after the wedding, and iron them again in order to resell them! When you get them from a rental company, they come already pressed and on hangers, ready to lay out smoothly on the tables So it was worth it for us to rent the tablecloths  and not have to bother with ironing, washing, ironing, and reselling them.

5. Rent from a company that has a good reputation.

In our area, that company is Nolan’s. We rented the linens from our caterer and the other equipment like tables and chairs from Nolan’s. We ended up adding a tablecloth at the last minute for the sweetheart table from Nolan’s, but it got confusing when it came time to return them all. So I would recommend renting all your linens from one company. Renting tablecloths from the caterer was convenient, because the caterer took the dirty linens away at the end of the evening and we did not have to give them a further thought or make a special trip to return them the next day.