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XP Budget tablecloths?!

[Deleted User][Deleted User] member
First Anniversary First Comment 5 Love Its
edited June 2017 in Budget Weddings Forum
I am having a huge wedding (approx. 400-500 guests), and I am at a loss where to get tablecloths from. The reception venue does not provide any linens, and the best price I've found is through Walmart for $5.99 which is actually fairly good, but that's buying and I'd rather not have to come up with what to do with 50 white round polyester tablecloths after the wedding. I'd really like to rent, but seems like reputable rental places, online and locally, charge practically double that $5.99 price. Anybody have any advice or good websites to check out?? I'd like to spend no more than $8 per tablecloth ideally.
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Re: XP Budget tablecloths?!

  • southernbelle0915southernbelle0915 mod
    First Anniversary First Answer First Comment 5 Love Its
    This is a good site:

    http://www.smartyhadaparty.com/
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  • charlotte989875charlotte989875 member
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    You may also want to try thrift stores. I would suspect many people buy them and then have no use for them and donate. 
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  • CMGragainCMGragain member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    I am curious.  What kind of a venue can handle 500 guests?  Why the huge numbers?
    httpiimgurcomTCCjW0wjpg
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  • MesmrEweMesmrEwe member
    First Answer First Comment 5 Love Its Name Dropper
    Your venue and/or caterer (sometimes florists provide this service as well) likely has a linen service they use and you can rent through them both tablecloths and napkins.  I own my own tablecloths for family and organizational events I'm involved in (around 25 sets).  I purchased mine from Sam's Club and are of decent quality that I can use them  and they come clean easy.  That said, I'd pay the premium to use either the venue or the caterer's linens instead of purchasing 50 sets, or, there may be an event rental company you can use too (and you can pay them to do all the delivery/set-up for you so you don't have to lift a finger - THIS is well worth any add-on price).  It's not just purchasing these, it's maintenance and cleaning.  Only 4-5 tablecloths go in the washer at a time and then there's folding and storage (they need to be used to stay in good condition for the long-term!).  

    Other than Sam's, I've had great experiences with Tablecloth World out of Illinois.  
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  • MesmrEweMesmrEwe member
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    CMGragain said:

    I am curious.  What kind of a venue can handle 500 guests?  Why the huge numbers?


    Some people like large weddings!  OTOH, DH & I both came from well known family businesses in the region and were the last to be married in both of our families, to say our invite list was HUGE would be an understatement and that was inviting in circles and cutting the list (not EVERY one of the peak season for DH's family business at the time were invited).  We also have huge families, my side alone was around 200 between aunts/uncles and first cousins and my family is close, so it's not like I don't know/communicate on a regular basis with these people.  

    We had 400 to the reception but had room for up to 1000 if everyone had shown up.  Any venue that handles large crowds on a normal basis is the type of venue that can handle 500.  Had we had our wedding by my parent's (FIL's health was why we had it here) we would have used the local KC Hall which could easily handle 600.  There are venues out there, finding venues to hold the 50-75 person events are actually harder to find around here!
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  • CMGragainCMGragain member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    edited June 2017
    Wow!  I don't think there are any venues like that around here except for our events center, and that's way-way expensive.
    httpiimgurcomTCCjW0wjpg
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  • kwiksilverkwiksilver member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its Name Dropper First Comment
    Yeah we also had the opposite problem, finding a small venue. We couldn't meet the minimum guest number for the first 2 venue choices. 

    My family is accustomed to 300+ person weddings. Giant farming community families, invites for everyone across the land, catered by an army of Aunties or the local 4-H club.

    I personally would probably buy the linens for that price and then just sell them after on CL or something (as is) for like $2 each.  If you don't want to go to the hassle just pay the difference and rent as PPs have suggested.  
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  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] member
    First Anniversary First Comment 5 Love Its
    edited June 2017
    CMGragain said:
    I am curious.  What kind of a venue can handle 500 guests?  Why the huge numbers?


    We both have big families, plus we're both from conservative Christian homeschooling communities, so most of our guests have 5-10 children each. And we both want as many of our friends there as possible, so that's why we chose to not cut down the guest list. I'm an only daughter, so it's a one time and important event for my family too! We rented a university chapel that seats 620 and a conference center for the reception that seats a similar number. :smile:
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  • LondonLisaLondonLisa member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    I would see if the conference centre has any preferred suppliers for catering hire. If it's a conference centre, I guarantee they have contacts for this. Then call them an ask if they have any deals for volume. I agree that hiring them will be so much easier than buying. Do you really want to deal with ironing, transporting and storing c. 70 tablecloths?

    Its worth it to pay a bit more to have the company deal with direct delivery, pressing, cleaning and collection. It might be worth googling if there are any Indian weddings suppliers in you're area, as they'll be experts in volume/ large parties. I've been to several south Asian weddings with well over 1000-1500 people. My British-Punjabi friend had 'only' 450 and she kept calling that a 'private' wedding. 

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  • ahoyweddingahoywedding member
    First Comment First Anniversary First Answer 5 Love Its
    What @LondonLisa said. I also looked into buying them and then realized that meant we had to wash them, press them, get them to the venue wrinkle-free, AND then somehow bring a bunch of dirty tablecloths home (ick). Our venue staff would also put them on the tables if we rented from their vendor, otherwise we would have had to find someone else to do that. For that hassle, plus the fact that I don't want to store 20 tablecloths of the same color, made renting seem like the better idea.

    Alternatively, I think Smarty Had A Party also has disposable tablecloths that look like fabric but aren't. That may be an option, since they're a ton less work.
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  • kahluakoalakahluakoala member
    First Anniversary First Comment 5 Love Its First Answer
    If it's more expensive to rent than buy, why not buy and then donate?
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  • LondonLisaLondonLisa member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its

    KahluaKoala said:

    If it's more expensive to rent than buy, why not buy and then donate?


    Honestly, If she has 500 people, and 8 to a table, that is 63 table cloths. I can tell you the last thing I would want to do the days before the wedding is ironing/ folding/ transporting over 60 table cloths. And yes, I said dayS because it is going to take forever to iron that many. 

    This is something that is worth paying a little more money to have someone else manage this. 
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  • MesmrEweMesmrEwe member
    First Answer First Comment 5 Love Its Name Dropper
    As for the ironing, this is why you purchase "Wrinkle Release" fabrics!  The ones I have from Sam's go from folded to table without too much of an issue (frankly, I'm too lazy to iron the things because unless you're rolling them, they're going to get wrinkled.  
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