A reader emailed me recently to say that she found a strange frugal hack for her wedding: Amazon.
She needs two tents for the occasion, and just one costs $540.
Horrified, she checked Amazon, purely as a joke. There she found $135 tents that include side walls. No shipping through Amazon Prime. She can buy sandbags for less than $6 each, rather than renting $20 weight bags (which are less sturdy anyway).
She also frugal hacked the tent setup/breakdown. It would have cost $65 for each. She reached out to a local animal shelter. She’ll donate the tents, and in exchange, the shelter will take away the tents for her. She saves $65 and gets a tax write-off.
Personally, I’d pay the $65 so I could resell the tents. If people are charging that much for rentals, some bride would be thrilled to get it for $200. But she’s one of those good people who actually cares about others.
Even so, she’s looking at some pretty impressive savings. Which got me thinking about what other wedding necessities you can find on Amazon.
One wedding rental site charges 35 cents for flatware. Another wants 40 cents. For the same price, you can get some (admittedly basic) flatware on Amazon. A set of 36 spoons is $13.99 ($0.39 each) and 36 forks are $12.43 ($0.35 each). Plus you can recoup some of the cost by selling the dinnerware on Craigslist.
A rental site charged $9-15 for various sizes of white tablecloths. Amazon has the same sizes in the same price range. And again, you can sell the ones from Amazon. Rental companies get very grouchy if you try to sell theirs.
I’m guessing that rental companies won’t let you pay with Amazon gift cards either. Use Swagbucks to save up for Amazon GCs and make your wedding even cheaper!
Has anyone else used Amazon to defray wedding costs?
Taylor Lee @ Engineer Cents says
Wow, I guess people charge whatever they want if they know it’s for a wedding!
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Abigail says
Yep, the industry is pretty insane. I relieved we had a long engagement so we could accrue the things we needed slowly.
Donna Freedman says
For people who don’t have two years in which to accrue stuff from thrift stores, Freecycle and other places, this Amazon hack sounds great.
DC @ Young Adult Money says
Ugh every time I hear about the cost of rentals I think “I’m in the wrong business!” I’ve seriously thought about purchasing things to rent for weddings, such as linens. The price to rent those alone are insane!
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Abigail says
Actually, one of the people who bought my wedding stuff was setting up a small rental business.
And hey, now you know where to find good prices if you do start one!
DC @ Young Adult Money says
Honestly, wedding in general seem like THEE industry to be in. Granted some areas that people are flocking to are becoming way too saturated (photography anyone?). One “dream” of my wife and mine is to own a wedding venue. Would be decades from now because it’s so capital intensive but even if you charge “low” prices you can still make a nice margin. Plus people will always be getting married.
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Abigail says
Yeah, I think that would be a great investment. We found a “cheap” venue for $500. It was a little small, but we considered it an amazing deal.
Christina @ Embracing Simple says
That’s insane how much cheaper using Amazon Prime is! Where was this post when I was planning my own wedding 3 years ago?! lol
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Abigail says
Yeah, I wish I’d thought of it when I was getting married. It would’ve made things a lot easier and cheaper.
Stefanie @ The Broke and Beautiful Life says
Amazon is amazing. The amount companies charge for one day rentals blows my mind.
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Abigail says
I imagine it’s even worse in NYC.
I had a friend who lived in NYC. The wedding was held at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens or something. It was winter, so it was the off season. Still, a venue in NYC, open bar, catering… I got a little faint thinking about the cost.
Shannon @ Financially Blonde says
Amazon Prime didn’t even exist when I got married, but if I had to plan my wedding all over again, I would have no issues see what they had to offer and getting deals wherever I could, especially with free shipping. 🙂
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Abigail says
Yeah, if I ever have to plan an event, I’m totally going to shop Prime!
C@thesingledollar says
Fascinating! I sometimes do some event planning, and I’ll have to keep this in mind.
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Abigail says
Hope it helps!
Jennifer says
It is amazing what deals can be found with a little ingenuity. I would never think to check Amazon for something like wedding tents. That is a big savings! It is also amazing how overpriced wedding items tend to be. For my wedding a few years ago, my mom got a great deal on some linens, which (if my memory serves me correctly) ended up being quite a bit cheaper to buy than to rent. I think she bought them used from a rental company going out of business, or something like that. And she has used them for several other events since!
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Abigail says
It’s always shocking when I see the prices, even now. Sounds like you have a smart mom!