Picking the plates

Our site has round tables for us to use... and.. that's it. I wasn't really looking forward to choosing the rentals, but we've gotta eat off something.

So off we head to the rental warehouse. (*Side note, this was one of the more difficult tasks to convince Mr. SB to accompany me on. "No, whatever you pick will be fine, I'm sure. No, really. I don't care. Really.") And it was basically nothing like I had envisioned. There were not endless arrangements of beautiful china and crystal. There weren't aisles of color coordinated linens and place settings with creative stylings. Nope. It was more of a 1/2 business office 1/2 showroom than a warehouse and the sample tables & place settings were all ready for Thanksgiving. There were a few china cabinets with other examples, but certainly not the plate nirvana I expected. Since fall colors weren't what we were looking for, the vibe of the place was totally off. When we bravely made contact with a sales woman, she was able to steer us towards the "bride-y" stuff.

Here were the contenders...

White tablecloth with green overlay. We'd been told, "Oh, pick out your items and they'll set a table for you so that you can envision it!" Right. All they had was a tiny little bistro table to try stuff out on, so I'm not sure how a big piece would look. And realllllllly dim lighting.

Nonetheless, I liked this look more than Mr. SB did.

After sorting through other green linens, we found this little sample of a shimmery green. And all they had was this tiny napkin sized sample. So she puts the napkin on the table with a plate on it. And then looks at us expectantly... like "So, can you envision your wedding banquet?" Um, no. That's ridiculous.

She did managed to find a jumbo-sized sample which totally engulfed the little bistro table, but at least it was a better visual. The pictures aren't really doing the fabric justice. It has a little silver shimmer to it, which I think will be picked up nicely in the candlelight.

Item #2 in the picture above, our chairs. They had basically three options: metal folding, those, or chivari. Oh man, chivari, you are beautiful. But $5 extra dollars per person for a rickety, unstable chair isn't worth it. Especially when those folding, padded fellas above were so darn comfortable. They will be working double duty, outside for the ceremony and inside for the reception. I wish we had white for the ceremony, but I'm pretty sure I'll get over it. And will be so busy trying not to cry/crying during my wedding I won't notice what other people are sitting on!


Final decision of the day, the place setting. The saleswoman was really nice and totally un-pushy. She kept showing us their "basic" items and saying how nice they were. Mr. SB couldn't possibly care less about the plates & silverware we eat off of, so he was pretty suckered in by that (money saving) idea. I fell into the same mode and agreed that we should just get their basic china, silverware, glassware, and napkins.

Now that I look back at my pictures.... it's sooo boooooring. I mean, sure it'll look better with the table done up and napkin rings and a menu at the place setting, etc., but... blahhh. We should be receiving the official quote from the caterer/rental place soon, I'll have to check and see what kind of "upgrades" are available as I am no longer feeling the plain Jane above. For task two, I'm going to check out reception photos of other weddings and see if you can see/tell/care what the china looks like. It's nice to save money, but it's fun to look pretty.

How did the china fit into your look of the day?