How (and why) to thrift for your wedding
Buying items second hand for your wedding is an incredible way to save money.
If you’re a bride-to-be, you’ve probably experienced the sticker shock that comes with planning a wedding. People always say it’s expensive, but you never truly believe them until you start asking around for quotes.
Thrifting your wedding decor might be for you if:
You’re looking to save on place settings and decorations, so you can splurge elsewhere.
You like an eclectic look.
You have the extra time to search for the perfect items.
You have space to dedicate to storing the items until your wedding.
For my wedding, my husband and I decided to thrift most of our table decor. When looking at rental prices, the lowest cost per place setting (plates, chargers, silverware, water glass, and cocktail glass) is about $10. After thrifting all of my place settings, our cost per setting was about $4.25. When you multiply that times the number of guests, the cost starts to add up.
That being said, thrifting your decor is definitely not for everyone. If your wedding aesthetic is more upscale, prim, and polished, it can be very difficult to create a uniform look with second hand items.
My ideal wedding aesthetic was a backyard garden whimsical fairytale vibe. So for me, it made sense to have plates, glasses, and silverware that didn’t exactly match, but did look cohesive together.
Here is a list of items that are easy to thrift for your wedding:
plates
silverware
glasses (especially pint glasses or mason jars)
cocktail glasses
bud vases
rustic style metal vases
cake stands
juice jugs
Create a mood board.
Before you enter any thrift store, you need to create a mood board for your wedding aesthetic. This will do a couple things for you - first, it will tell you exactly what you need to execute your vision, and second, it will create a guide for you when you are at the thrift store.
If you are anything like me, it’s so easy to thrift items that have absolutely no place in my event just because I think it’s pretty. Don’t waste your money, and stick to your plan.
Go early and often.
Most thrift stores put out their inventory each morning before opening, and don’t re-stock throughout the day. In order to get the best selection, hit your local thrift stores early.
In the same vein, going often really pays off. Even if the store you’re in doesn’t have bud vases today, it might be overflowing with them next week.
Get creative.
Don’t limit your search to just thrift stores. Also check Facebook Marketplace, especially if your wedding is later in the season. After my wedding, I sold a lot of my leftover decor on FB Marketplace, and many brides do the same.
When to call it quits.
Sometimes, it makes more sense to rent items than to thrift them.
For me, I ended up renting all of our linens. My original vision for them was to cut, dye, and sew table runners out of thrifted comforters. But if you’re currently planning your wedding, you know that your most limited resource (behind money, of course) is time. It just made more sense for me to spend the money on the table runners, so that I could focus my energy elsewhere.
