One of my favorite things that I did for the wedding was to collect all of the dinner plates, side plates, tea cups and saucers from charity shops such as Goodwill. When I was wedding planning, I used to read this great blog, One Fab Day, which features a wedding in Ireland each day and came across one bride who had rented vintage plates for her day. I began to research it and found some beautiful pieces! I was still in my early, optimistic days of trying to be frugal (these days don’t last long) and was curious if I could source my own for less. Answer? I told Paul yes. In the end, probably not! But could I spend many wonderful hours sourcing the plates in Goodwill and add a really unique twist to the wedding? Hell yes!
I think I was officially Goodwill’s best customer in the run up to the wedding! There is a fab Goodwill in Seattle and I spent many a happy hour filling my trolley with pretty, feminine, romantic looking vintage plates. It started with dinner plates (known as the gateway drug) and quickly spiraled into side plates (because why would I have rented “normal” side plates beside my gorgeous vintage dinner plates?) and then finally became tea cups and saucers. I’d held out for so long on the tea cups and saucers but sometimes friends, the addiction is stronger than your will.
I even momentarily dabbled in collecting all the knives, forks and spoons but thankfully common sense won out and I realized that rummaging through the cutlery bins at Goodwill was just a little soul destroying.
It took a long time and many, many trips to Goodwill to collect everything but the final look of the vintage plates with the lace vintage tablecloths and napkins was lovely. Everyone thought I was mad (see picture of Uncle Johnny below for proof) but loved it and it was truly unique.
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