Renting vs. Buying Linens

With the surge of many online linen suppliers, we often get asked by brides and grooms "Why Rent when I can Buy for just a little more cost". And it's a valid question. I know that's shocking to hear from a rental linen company owner! But I do feel that each bride & groom has to sit down and weigh the pros and cons of renting vs. buying the linens for their special day.
A lot of brides don't realize the benefits and drawbacks of each choice and it's important to make a educated decision for the decor of one of the most important days of your life!!

BUYING LINENS FROM AN ONLINE WHOLESALER

1. Verify Quality - A lot of online wholesaler of linens are driven by offering the consumer the lowest possible price to draw customers away from renting. They usually ship these linens out of China in mass quantities and order the most economical linens which are lower quality than what you'll get from rental companies. Rental companies use their linens for numerous weddings and wash them after each use. So, in turn, they tend to use higher quality linens with higher thread quality so these linens will stand up over time. I've heard quite a few brides who bought linens from online wholesalers say that when they washed the linens after their wedding, the seams fell apart and the linens were unusable.

2. Resell Advantage - Most brides who buy linens online are doing so with the intention of reselling the linens after using them for their wedding or event. So even if the linens are more expensive to buy, they feel they can recoup some of those costs when they go to sell them to another bride. Online websites are starting to pop up that allow brides to sell back their wedding linens to other brides. This is a great tool for brides who don't have high budgets for linens and want to keep costs low.

3. Preparation/Setup Needed - When buying linens online, most come folded in plastic packaging or folded in a large box. They will need to be taken out of the packaging before the wedding and ironed and laid out so they don't collect wrinkles. There is nothing worse than wrinkled linens on your wedding tables!! In a typical wedding of 120 guests, it could take 2-3 days of prep time to ensure the linens are ready for the wedding day. You'll also need at least 2-3 hours of prep time the day of the wedding to lay out all the tables, chair covers and sashes. Most brides don't want to do this themselves, so they ask friends and family to do this for them. Venues and Wedding Coordinators don't usually include the setup as part of their costs - so you will need to add these services for an additional cost.

RENTING LINENS FROM A LOCAL RENTAL COMPANY

1. High Quality - The quality you'll find from most rental companies far exceeds what you find from online wholesalers. Rental companies use the same linens for multiple weddings so the quality of the linens needs to be a very high quality. Also, some brides may think all satins are the same, but there are so many varieties of satins available. At Picture Perfect Linens, we offer Lamour Satin which is a far better quality than the standard Shiny Bridal Satin. Our satin makes for a more elegant and sophisticated look than some of the satins you will find online.

2. Preparation/Setup is Done For You - The biggest advantage of using a rental company for your linens is that the setup and prep work is done for you! The last thing a bride wants to deal with on the days leading up to her wedding is ironing linens and making sure they are wrinkle free. A good rental company presses all linens before use and has proper equipment to store the linens until they need to be delivered. Also, most rental companies charge a minimal fee for setup on the day of the wedding. So for $75-$150 extra, you will have professional grade setup of the decor of your reception. There are countless brides who asked their friends/family to setup chair covers and sashes only to have them fall down on the chairs by the time the reception starts.

3. Variety of Linens - The variety of specialty linens that you find at rental companies, far exceeds what you're able to find from online wholesalers. These wholesalers usually only carry a certain amount of colors and not all sizes. So if a bride is looking for a certain color or certain unique cake table linen, it is hard to find them online. At Picture Perfect Linens, we carry a Puffy Barrel Tablecloth that rents for far less than what you can purchase it for online. We also offer many specialty linens that can distinguish your wedding from others.

All of this information is vital to a bride's decision about renting vs. buying linens. There is no correct answer. Each bride's situation is different so it's up to you to determine whether buying or renting is the right decision for you!