Wedding Blog

I never thought I would have an outdoor wedding. I knew that the thought of rain would stress me out and that the logistics of planning an outdoor event – especially a summer one – would overwhelm me.

And yet … I couldn’t get the image of an outdoor wedding out of my head. Mr. Bunny and I didn’t have a church we called home at the time, and my parents’ church, for all its lovely architecture, has orange carpet from the 1970s. Not exactly in line with our color palette.

Somehow, I managed to convince myself that the possibility of rain was small in July and that all we really needed for an outdoor ceremony was chairs.

I could rent chairs, couldn’t I? That couldn’t possibly be very difficult.

Of course, that was before we had completely settled upon our budget. Renting chairs for 200 people for less than $400 was a little bit harder than I had anticipated—but only because my expectations were so high!

Visiting the websites of the rental businesses that our venue coordinator gave me showed that it could be done IF we were willing to get plastic and metal chairs.

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In Columbus, these chairs rent for $1 to $1.25 each. That’s doable, but I was really hoping for chairs more like this.

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The natural wood look is a perfect fit for our rustic theme. Unfortunately, the few companies that rent this style of chair in my area charge about $3 apiece for them. I felt a little silly at first for rejecting the plastic and aluminum chairs, but I really think wooden chairs will be much more sturdy.

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The white version of the folded padded chair rents for as low as $2.25 each. Better, but still not quite good enough.

My main resource during my search for the perfect rear-end receptacle was, of course, the internet. I did an exhaustive search of rental companies in Columbus and the surrounding towns, viewing their websites to see what kinds of chairs they offered at what prices. Those that didn’t offer prices on the website, I called on the phone to ask about their pricing and availability.

After calling 15 different companies further and further outside Columbus, I found one company in a town 39 miles away that rents smaller wooden folding chairs for 60 cents each. Sixty cents? That’s cheaper than some in-town companies were charging for beat-up aluminum folding chairs! Even with the $4 per mile delivery fee, the total would be $280. YES!

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The happy dance I did when I heard that quote was short lived. I mentioned my date and the owner balked. A local church holds a picnic every year on that weekend and rents every single one of his chairs.

At this point, I despaired of ever finding wooden chairs and tried to resign myself to the white plastic and metal chair. I really think I would have been just fine with the aluminum chairs, and I was all ready to call and reserve them when I decided to make one last phone call.

I called back the rental company that offered 60 cent wooden chairs and left a pleading message, saying that if, for some reason, they had a cancellation, to please, please call me. I was woken bright and early the next morning by a phone call from the owner.

After listening to my message, he’d called the church to confirm and discovered that they’d canceled their annual picnic because they were in the midst of renovations! The wooden chairs were mine, and I was $120 under budget!

I haven’t seen them in person yet, but I imagine they’ll look something like this:

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Lined up, they’ll look like this (minus the tent):

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The morals of this tale are many:

1. Leave yourself lots of time to look for a rental company.
2. Research, research, research. The interwebs are your friend. Make phone calls when necessary.
3. Ask questions. What’s the per-chair price? Is there a delivery fee? A set up fee? Can they be dropped off and picked up on the day of the wedding? (If not, you’d best have somewhere to store those puppies!)
4. Don’t be afraid to check surrounding towns. Prices outside the big metropolis are often lower. In my case, the higher delivery charge was canceled out by the rock-bottom (har, har) chair rental cost.
5. Even if your fave company swears they’re booked, ask if you can be put on a waiting list. You never know who will cancel!

I should note that I tried to follow the common tip to avoid mentioning that your “outdoor party” is a wedding. Some brides have sworn that they’ve been quoted lower prices that way. Not so in my case. EVERY company I talked to flat-out asked whether we were throwing a wedding, and I couldn’t bring myself to lie outright. That said, none of the vendors quoted me a penny over the price posted online.

Outdoor brides, where will your guests rest their cutie-patooties? Any other tips for dealing with rental companies? Did you get a lower price when you asked for a quote for your “event”?