Decor diy vs Rentals

DIY with caution - if you DIY using things you already have / other peoples "junk" that they are willing to give away for free then 100% DIY is cheapest. A bonus for DIY is you can resell them once your wedding is done and collect some of your money back!

I’m in exactly same situation as you are. Small wedding of 50 guests, don’t need a whole lot of stuff. I’m also crafty and don’t mind doing DIY at all. I ended up deciding to do a combination of DIY and rental. My main concern of only doing DIY is that who will help/how will things be setup on the day of. I m not hiring a wedding coordinator. I don’t want to set stuff up myself on my wedding day. I decided to go with a rental company who helps set up the whole area even if not every item for the area is rented from them. For example, I am creating a welcome sign area with a sign on an easel, and vintage crates and a few lanterns beside the sign. I will DIY the sign and bring an easel, and rent the lantern and crates and greenery from them, they set everything up for me. If you have someone to help the set up and takedown of everythjng, then DIY is the way to go. Otherwise go with the rental so that you don’t have to worry about the work on the day of.

Thank you all so much for the super helpful suggestions! I hadn’t thought of Facebook groups so I’ll definitely check that out

Before renting I'd suggest checking facebook marketplace for things that may interest you. There is often brides or grooms selling their wedding decor, PLUS then you could resell them after your wedding. Where as if you rent them, you never get any return on the investment. We are doing a mixture of both as we weren't able to find everything we were looking for, but I hope to get some money back after the wedding on the stuff we did buy second hand.

It completely depends on the item.

Candle holders, we rented. Same with the glass cake platters we used for our dessert display. It didn't make financial sense to purchase all of these items, and they were vintage, so sourcing them would have been very time consuming.

The items I bought, I knew I could easily sell afterwards (seating chart, menu board, welcome sign, card box, table runners, table numbers, dessert labels).

See if there's a local wedding facebook group in your area. I found the majority of my decor on there from brides selling, so the prices were much cheaper, and I used the same site after the wedding to sell everything after.

With DIYing, it only ends up being "cheaper" if you don't mind investing the time. For me, I love to make things, and I found making our wedding decor a really good artistic outlet for me, so I very much enjoyed it.

I did DIY over rentals mostly because I had a specific idea of what I wanted, and I had the time to put towards DIY.

I'd definitely research the type of project you are looking to do and see if it's doable to you. I see your wedding isn't until 2021 so you have time to research and do any DIYs. You can also choose to sell your DIY projects (i.e. centrepieces) after your wedding.

DIY is only a cheaper option if you know what you're doing. If you haven't made a similar project before you might end up wasting time and money.


I like the idea of renting, it's usually an economical choice and it's greener!

Find what type of centrepiece and decor you want. then price it all out by checking michaels or walmart or something then when you have your price email a bunch of decor companies and ask what they would charge with tax to do the samething you want and see whats cheaper.

I would say for some things renting is cheaper - but with doing DIY you have the ability to sell the stuff after you use it and make most of the money back which would make that the cheaper option of the two

I guess it all depends on what you want for centerpieces. How much would supplies cost? Would you be able to resell them? Is it something you would enjoy?