Mismatched China

I don't mean to burst your bubble, but you are not going to be able to purchase mismatched china for 250-300 people on a budget. I did a mismatched china rental and it was much more affordable than actually trying to buy china at flea markets, ebay, antique malls, etc. It was more expensive than renting regular dinner plates or using nice plastic.

What you need depends on what you are serving. We did not have salads, so we did not have salad plates. We only had dinner plates, forks and knives (we did not need spoons). Our bar provided glassware.

Also, nobody is going to want to take home the a mismatched single china plate. What are they going to do with one piece of mismatched china? We hired two people for two hours to bus, clean, and pack the dishes per the rental requirements.

It's okay to forgo favors all together because you can't please everyone and the reception is the "thank you" to guests for attending the ceremony. Favors are just an additional place to spend money. While they're a nice touch, they're not needed.

ETA: Here's some pics from my wedding of the china.

OMG....don't do this. You have to find it. transport it (it's heavy), wash it. And yes, you need at least a big plate, cake plate, silverware and glasses. And no, no one want one plate.

On a tight budget? Cut the guest list. This is a hideously unworkable idea. I'm sorry.

This sounds like it would be beautiful, but quite honestly it's going to be a huge amount of work (cleaning 300 dishes) and quite the expense. IMHO it would be better to spend the money on something more impactful and just go with some nice looking table settings.

Also, as VWCat said, no one will want a single china plate to take home. No need for favors at all really.

Thanks for your response! Like I mentioned, a plate is something that I would enjoy because it can be used for serving, or using in decor, etc. I like having unique things like that. I agree with you on the favors not being necessary, and I might forgo them altogether.

If I purchased dinner plates only at an average of 50cents/one dollar, then that would fit into my budget. I already have some pieces that I could use, and I've seen those prices at my local thrift stores, etc. What I was worried about was if I really needed to buy the salad and bread plates, too. I'm sure we will have salad and bread, but I don't see why people can't just put that on one plate, especially if we are serving family style. That's how I eat at home.

Would you feel comfortable sharing the per piece pricing of the mismatched china that you rented? Perhaps that would end up being a better route for me after all.

Thanks!

Do you even know how much this will cost? it will throw your "limited budget" out the window. My SIL did this for her wedding this coming saturday for just 80 people and it was very expensive. They also had to wash over 500 pieces of china, by hand, and then store it, and then separate it/piece together. It's not worth it for 250-300 people, that will be literally 2000 pieces of china.

My advice, check flea markets, antique stores, good wills, etc etc.

Our venue provides mismatched china, and I think it looks beautiful. But it will be expensive to buy, and a pain in the booty to wash. Rental would definitely be a good option here.

Does your caterer not offer rentals for this? Acquiring, storing, and transporting place settings for that many people is going to take a huge amount of time and effort. Even if you can purchase the plates for cheap I can't imagine it's worth the hassle.

Sarah, that's why I am asking about what really needs to be included. Spending 50cents/one dollar per plate for just dinner plates is doable for me. If I had to add all of the other pieces, then no, it would no longer fit into my budget. I planned on researching rental. I just wanted to put this out there first to hear people's thoughts. My wedding is still far off, so I'm just in the brainstorming phase.

This is the company I used:

https://www.facebook.com/chinarental/

I'm not sure what her current price list is, but if you're in my area (KY), you could ask her for her current price list. I was asked after the wedding to not share pricing--sorry! I'd share otherwise.

As for the $0.50-$1/piece, I did find a few for that range, but you need more than just 10, 20, or 30 of them, and typically those are smaller quantities. While I did spend lots of time scouring for all sorts antique/thrift/yard sales/flea markets/craigslist/buyselltradeFB pages for decor for my wedding, the one thing I noticed was how difficult it was to find a large quantity of china for a decent price. I know there was someone on here who DID purchase mismatched china for her wedding, but it was for around 60 people. For the number of people you're talking about, this is going to be a lot of money and time invested. China also takes up a lot of space to transport (the 100 china dinner plates were packed in like 10 square boxes that took up the entire back of their subaru). And for our wedding, we already had three cars packed with decor that we brought in, flowers, etc for the wedding.

ETA: If you had the money up front to invest it in the china, you could probably sell it for more than you bought it for, but it will take some time after your wedding to find the right buyer or you'll have to split it up and sell in smaller lots. I think your best bet is to check with a rental company to save you all the time and hassle because when you've got 150 pieces and need another 150 pieces within your budget, you're going to want to bang your head against the wall.

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Have you seen china you like at those local thrift stores for 50 cents each? For example, I would love to do gold-rimmed chargers for my tables but they are $3 a piece through my event rental company so that would be like $600. Like previous posters have said - things get expensive super quickly!

If you're seeing great cheap china - then go for it! I'd start buying it up now. @VWCat shared some gorgeous pictures and great advice - I think you can stick to the limited place settings you listed.

In terms of using them as favors - I think it's a great idea but it might just cause a logistical nightmare. Can your caterer/venue wash and turn around all of the plates in time? Would wrap the plate or have bags to give them out in? I just picture myself with my tiny clutch at a wedding holding and plate and wondering what I'm supposed to do with it

I did go to a friend's bridal shower where they did mismatched china teacups and everyone got to keep theirs as a favor. Very cute and was much more feasible on a small scale!!

And to give you an idea of the amount of work that goes into it, here's the post shared on FBthe week before my wedding:

"Washing, drying, counting and packing for a wedding this Saturday. Aren't they beautiful???"

https://www.facebook.com/chinarental/photos/a.330723923754436.1073741829.330678007092361/529463017213858/?type=3&theater

They're gorgeous right!!! But I am SO GLAD that I was not the one doing the washing, drying, counting, and packing the weekend before my wedding

What about giving a set of 12 to each of my bridesmaids as their gifts???

I'm actually doing mismatched China for our wedding. I've found it really easy to find inexpensive plates that match our colors at local thrift stores, but I've had a lot of time to look. We plan on doing dinner plates along with one side plate for cake. I've been washing plates as I acquire them so I can store them with my wedding stuff without worry about germs haha. My boss is catering our wedding so she is going to run all the plates through the dish machine before transporting them to the wedding (we have around 100 guests). Since we do a lot of weddings and events, she's gonna keep the plates after we get done with them to use for future events. Obviously, this wouldn't work out for everyone, but I think it's doable if your guest list is smaller. We are probably also gonna buy metal silverware from Walmart. It's obviously not as ideal as nice silverware, but it's better than plastic. And they have them 4/$1 so it's not a big loss to bite if some of them were to get thrown away or lost in the shuffle.

Can you find enough in a year? Probably. Will you want to store 300 plates, clean them, transport them, clean them again, transport them again and store them again until you sell them? Probably not. Take your $1.00 per plate, then add an additional $200.00 to hire people to bus, clean and store. Compare that to a rental company and see which one will save you money.

That sounds like a lot of work and transporting them may be risky. If your guest list was smaller then maybe but that it a lot of people.

I am considering getting blush goblets, but I won't need more than 15.

Duplicate

I'm also doing mismatched China for a guest count of 114. We did collect from thrift stores etc. We are doing bbq etc so we only got dinner plate and cake plate. We went with the silver ware that looks real but is plastic from dollar tree and handled mason jars. Our wedding consultant will have staff wash them and then they are being donated to the church. I will say the packing and washing has been hard.

At OP, giving for bridesmaids sets of plates each as a gift isn't really a gift though, right? It's something you needed for your own wedding, not a special gift for them.

I like the idea of mismatched China, but consider renting them.

You will need a spoon at each place as well.

When I worked at the Goodwill people would always do this for weddings.. I always thought it was such a beautiful shabby chic look! They would buy them and re-donate them after the wedding. I imagine it's a lot cheaper than renting China.