Where to Buy Supplies

I’ve got two words for you: Thrift Shop. My own personal favorite in that arena is the Goodwill, but that’s only because there are several large ones conveniently located for my life. There’s the Salvation Army, Value Village, and a million other smaller ones.

Serving Trays and Utensils
I stumbled upon this idea when I was thinking about serving platters. My intention had been to go with the “Medieval Riche” theme by getting gold and silver plastic platters at the local party store. They run about $2-5 each, depending on the size, and are sturdy enough to last a while, even maybe get reused later. Then on a whim I wandered into a Goodwill, and realized that I could get real metal trays, bowls, platters, plates, serving utensils, and more for about the same cost. I’ve found silver chafing dishes for $10, silver and glass dip servers, and several sterling silver platters for $2-5 each. The bonus here is that if they get dropped, broken, screwed up, lost, scratched, dented, or spirited away to Faerieland, I don’t care. I don’t have any emotional investment in the dishes and they were cheap enough to consider disposable. At the same time, they’re a lot sturdier than plastic, and look much nicer. They’re varied and interesting instead of all being the same; mine range from inlaid trays straight out of a Tarn-Ex commercial to some really ornate grapevine dishes. And if they survive the wedding, I now have a passle of sturdy serving dishes for future parties! (And I can give away the plastic serving trays I’ve been using at my holiday parties for the last decade…)

Plates and Trenchers
While I was looking at serving trays, it occurred to me that if we were going to do a sit-down meal, we could get plenty of wooden serving bowls, trenchers, and wooden utensils at the Goodwill as well. They tend to run about $.50 each for the bowls and plates, which is cheap, but could stack up if you’re feeding 100 people. If it’s a smaller affair, hey, it’d be fun.

Baskets for…Whatever
I also wandered into the basket aisle. Being a Michael’s Craft Store Frequent Flyer, I know how much new baskets cost. They’re not cheap. As I was looking, it occurred to me that basketry would be perfect for…just about everything. I found flat baskets to hold silverware and napkins. I found gently curved baskets to hold flowers or more silverware. I found big baskets for favors and candies, and little baskets for other things. And I found something which intrigued me greatly…wicker cornucopias. I’ve always been an autumn baby, despite having been born in the spring, so I bought several of them without exactly knowing what to do with them. (Turns out I should have bought more, as I then had to go back and revisit every Goodwill in the area to find enough for my later needs. See "Flowers and Centerpieces" for that story.)

Baskets at the Goodwill run somewhere between $.50 and $3 each, at least in my neck of the woods, which is considerably cheaper than they are new. Check out the "Favors" page for more suggestions on what to do with baskets.

Candlesticks and Candelabras
What wedding would be complete without a bunch of candlesticks? Now I’m not really “cheap”, but I can’t see spending $20 on a candlestick, particularly for just a wedding. They have some nice ones at the Goodwill for a few bucks. Honestly, I spent about five times as much on the genuine beeswax candles as I did on any of the candle holders. If you want wooden candleholders, you can get them unstained at a craft store for about $2.00 each, and you can stain them any color you want, or even paint them. I used both wooden and metal candle holders, since I liked both.

One word about things from Thrift Stores…don’t be afraid to buy something that’s a little tarnished or stained, and try to clean it. Most metal items clean up quite nicely with some elbow grease and polish, and if it doesn’t, eh, you’re out a few bucks.

Other Places

Michael’s Craft Store has a lot of nice stuff for making your own wedding items, but do know what you’re looking at. Their prices are sometimes high. I bought a lot of ribbon and floral picks on sale, which helped, and I bought most of the “big” stuff elsewhere.
Don’t forget eBay. It sounds silly, but there’s some cool stuff on there. I bought my tiara on eBay. (See "Going With The Flow"for a story…) I also bought all my wedding day earrings and bracelets here, and this is in fact where I found my wedding gown seamstress, who ended up making my gown and my Maid of Honor’s gown. (Search for her under “Faire Wear” to see her work…she’s outstanding. Very talented seamstress, unbelievably reasonably priced, and incredibly nice.) Check it out for jewelry in particular, or clothes for your wedding party. You can also find swords, veils, centerpieces, cake toppers, favors…heck, you name it. Do know what you’re buying, and do practice safe shopping, but don’t be afraid to get things this way!
The Paper Zone or similar paper and scrapbooking stores are a great place to wander and find ideas. They have interesting deckle scissors, photo corners, stickers, hole punches, mini invitations and envelopes, boxes, baubles, calligraphy pens, photo album kits, and of course reams of the perfect paper for every occasion.
Pike Place Market or other farmer’s markets are a good place to find beeswax candles, honeycomb, dried flowers, fresh flowers, gourds, and strings of peppers or vegetables for decoration. I may have moved away from Seattle, but I still seem to do a lot of shopping there…