Wedding Wednesday: Tableware

The tableware was something that we thought long and hard about.  After all the thinking much time was then spent to complete our plan.  We thought about renting and then we thought about disposable.  There wasn't a big kitchen on site so it would be difficult to wash any dishes, so we were leaning towards disposable dishware.  I was very picky though, I still wanted it to look nice, and I wanted it to be as environmentally friendly as disposable dishware could be.  I looked for a while and then I finally found bamboo plates and flatware.  It had a very natural feel, that seemed to fit in at our garden party.

So, that solved the problem of plates and flatware, but what about cups?  We looked at plastic cups and plastic cups made of corn, but weren't really satisfied with the look.  Then Graham came up with the idea of using second-hand glasses.  That started our mission to find water glasses, champagne glasses, and water carafes for all of our tables.  We decided to just use a mixture of all different shapes for the champagne glasses including flutes, as well as the cute little coupes.  We scoured thrift shops and garage sales for weeks.  Our favorite spot was the Goodwill Outlet store in San Luis Obispo where you just dig through boxes of dishware and pay no more than 50 cents a piece.  Sometimes when we'd bring so many up to the counter, the clerk would just make a guess and it would be even less than 50 cents.  After finding them we made sure to wash them thoroughly, including a sanitizing iodide bath.  We definitely had a lot of fun finding all of our glasses and it was also a lot of fun for our wedding.

We picked out special glasses for ourselves and our wedding party.  Mine was a light pink color and Graham's had a fancy rim.

Our guests seemed to really enjoy the different glasses too.  We even let them take them home if they wanted to!  Some of our guests were even able to collect whole sets of glasses at the end of the day.  The water carafes were a surprisingly popular item among the guests too.  We have friends that use theirs on a regular basis.  If I were to do it again, I think I would even do it for the plates too!  Just make sure you have plenty of time to collect them all.

All photos by Allyson Magda