Why Should I Use Vintage Rentals? 10 Reasons to Rent Rather than Buy

Sometimes when we explain to acquaintances or new connections that we're in the vintage rental business, we get a few strange looks and even some incredulous questions: "What's the point of that?" We like to say that Momentarily Yours Events exists to help make event planning a bit more lovely, affordable, and a lot less stressful.

Chances are, if you're a bride or a party hostess looking to pull off a vintage, whimsical, eccentric, or rustic-tinged event, you also aren't afraid to get your hands dirty digging for treasures in someone's basement, barn, or flea market stall, and that you already have some antique gems you'd like to use at your event. But that doesn't mean that you have to do it all on your own. You can incorporate family heirlooms and personal purchases into your event design and supplement them with our vintage rentals for a truly original look.

Still think you want to do it all yourself? Read on for a few reasons Momentarily Yours Events' vintage rentals will help you create the celebration you've envisioned!

1. Vintage rentals save you time.

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Let's say you want to emulate the tablescape above at your wedding reception, shower, or other event. The collected glass bottle look is so gorgeous and it saves money on larger floral centerpieces, but to affordably replicate it on just one table, you'd have to search for months at flea markets, thrift stores, antique malls, and estate sales in order to amass all the glass vessels. Doing it on a larger scale would take even more shopping time! You run the risk of running out of time to find all the bottles you need to complete the look (and just think of all the gas money you'll spend trekking around the Kansas City area!). With our vintage rental inventory, you can reproduce this look with just a few clicks of your mouse! We have aqua, clear, purple, cobalt, and amber medicine bottles as well as soda bottles and assorted clear vases, all already collected for you!

2. Vintage rentals also save you money.

Since we're constantly scouring Kansas City's antique stores, thrifts, fleas, and barn sales, we know a thing or two about price points--and we always set our rental prices lower than the cost of buying our items. Take the eclectic bottle look pictured above. Since aqua is an on-trend, in-demand color right now, those beautiful blue bottles start at $6 and only go up from there (even online!) Comparatively, you can rent our blue medicine bottles for just $1.25 each. In fact, our most expensive item (our rustic sideboard) rents for just $25.00! You can find pricing information on our website; just select a category and the specific item you're interested in.

3. We have the one-of-a-kind items that you just can't find anywhere else.

It'd take some real digging (maybe even an antiquing road trip) to find some of the vintage and rustic items we've unearthed, like our weather vane, chicken feeder trays, zinc lanterns, wooden ironing board, tin heart molds, kids' school chairs, or crayon boxes, all pictured above. They're completely unique to our collection; even if you did find a place to buy them, chances are they'll rent for less than their purchase price! If you have your heart set on a unique item that we don't currently have in our inventory, we can also complete a custom search for you!

4. We have the quality...

Even if you're up to the task of searching for good deals on unique vintage items, you still might struggle to find gems that are in good condition. Obviously with age items can gain a lovely patina and a nicely weathered look--that's a part of the vintage aesthetic that you're most likely drawn to--but at the same time, you don't want jars with large chips or cracks, crates that could fall apart at any second, or lace linens with rips or stains. It takes time and dedication to find quality vintage items that don't cost an arm and a leg. We've done the groundwork for you and curated goods free of major aesthetic damage.

5. ...and the quantity!

While we're constantly adding completely new items to our inventory, we're also careful to grow our existing collections of jars, vases, and votive holders to ensure that we have enough for centerpieces and accent tables. One of the downsides of purchasing items on your own (apart from the cost) is that it's often hard to find whole sets of vintage items for sale. We love a collected, eclectic look, but recognize that some tablescapes look best with matching votives and vessels. We have high quantities of all of the items pictured above (plus many of our other vintage rentals!), and like all our items they're available for rent at the fraction of the cost of purchasing them.

6. Go green, y'all.

I've been to a few weddings where items (especially votives and other candle holders) get tossed into the trash at the end of the night--partially because they're covered in wax (which is pretty easy to remove, by the way--I feel a "How to Clean Vintage Items" post coming on!) and partially because they're items that people don't really plan on using after the event. Why spend more to buy something if you're just going to throw it away? It's not a very cost effective or environmentally friendly option. Since we buy our items used, you'll be participating in a "green" cycle, preventing new emissions and preventing goods from going to the landfill.

7. You can mix and match and create a truly unique look for your event. 

Don't get us wrong--we love Pinterest, but because of all of the inspiration photos floating around on the site, we have noticed that even vintage and rustic weddings are starting to look a little cookie cutter. It's so easy to get attached to a beautiful image and want to recreate it exactly--but we encourage you to personalize your centerpieces and other decor so that things don't feel too familiar. We have such a diversity of vintage rentals that it's easy to customize tablescapes and add eccentric, unexpected details, such as our cheese graters, alarm clocks, wire candleabra, bingo cards, toy cash register, child's microscope, chippy old kitchen scale, or colorful milk bottles. You also might be tempted to use more traditional vases or decor provided by your florist or your venue, and that's fine too! You can always add some of our vintage items to make your guests say "Wow! I've never seen that done before!"

8. Where are you going to store 200 china dinner plates after your reception?

If there's any vintage item you need en masse, it's not only cheaper and easier to rent them, but it's also much easier to handle them after use at your event--just hand 'em back over to us. (We can also pick the items up if necessary!) It's better than trying to unload your purchases on Craigslist, letting them grow dusty and take up precious storage space in your basement, or hauling carloads of donations to the thrift store. Trust us--we have plenty of vintage goodies stored in our studio (see the photo above), but that's not even half of it! It takes a lot of space to store this stuff.

9. Speaking of storage, where are you going to store those 200 dinner plates before your reception?

Repeat: it takes a lot space to store this stuff. Who wants to feel claustrophobic, tripping on boxes full of mason jars and milk glass in the months preceding the big day? You don't have to stress about washing your items and keeping them safely stored to prevent breakage. We'll carefully package your rental items for pick-up, or we can deliver them straight to your venue for you!

10. We have lots of styling ideas, and we love to share!

We don't just provide vintage rentals--we can also help you decide how to repurpose our items at your event. When you rent from us, you get a complimentary 30-minute styling consultation to discuss your vision and how we can help implement it! You can show us your favorite inspiration photos, play around with our rentals to make sample centerpieces, and just generally pick our brains for styling suggestions. Sometimes you have to step outside of the mood board and chat about your ideas with someone--that's what we're here for! (I guess you could try this with the cashier at the thrift store or the owner of the antique mall, but chances are they'll zone out or ask you to leave after 10 minutes of tablescape chatter.)

So there you go. 10 reasons we think you should give Momentarily Yours vintage rentals a try, Kansas City! From our standpoint, the #1 reason you should? Because we love to help make people's moments lovely, and we can't wait to meet you and discuss how we'll do that for you!

Any questions? Just drop us a line or give us a call. We're waiting.

Fab Finds Friday: Antiquing Roadtrip

At the end of June, I road tripped with two friends and my husband Ryan down to Shreveport, Louisiana, where my friend Anna will be living next year! We wanted to check out her new home and celebrate her birthday in true Southern style. Of course spending time with my friends was the number one priority, but as with any vacation, I was also excited to eat local foods and of course hit up some local stores!

 

 

My two road trip companions, Anna and Ashley, are thankfully into antiquing, so it wasn't hard to convince them to stop in many antique malls along the way down and back.

 

 

Our first pit stop was actually a happy accident--we pulled off to gas up and take a restroom break and noticed a cute little store called "Grandma's Attic" nestled next to the gas station, so we went to check it out.

 

 

I loved how each booth was separated by chicken wire walls--they functioned as easy dividers and sellers could use them to hang items! Megan and I have chicken wire frames on our to-make list. They are great for displaying photos or holding escort cards!

 

 

One of my purchases was this bluish-green chicken. As a treasure hunter, I see clear, sage green, and milk glass versions of this guy all the time, but I'd never seen one that was this sort of emerald-y color, and I was smitten!

 

 

A pair of these green goblets also made it back home with me. At the time, our collection of green glassware was lacking, and the price was right, so I snatched them up. We've definitely remedied the green glass shortage now, as you can see from our inventory.

 

 

I snapped the above picture to showcase those cute little tins. I also like the small scale in the left of the photo. And isn't Colonel Sanders just fabulous? (Kidding, kidding).

 

After having such luck on our spontaneous stop on the way down, we decided to check out a few stores in Shreveport, and we plotted a full-on antiquing road trip for our way back!

 

 

I was really take by these two globes, particularly the white one because I loved its color. The coolest part about them is that they have Russia labeled as the USSR and show a divided Germany because the Berlin Wall was still up. Since we'd recently acquired a globe for our inventory (and these were a bit pricy), I passed on both.

 

 

Oh, sweet glassware! You look so pretty! I just took this picture to show how lovely the clustered goblets look. Using a lot of one thing can make a big impact on an event, even if they're spread around the room and not grouped like this. Imagine how good a cluster of clear vases or compotes would look as a centerpiece!

 

 

I loved these pink goblets, but not their price. I'd like to add some more pink to our colored glassware collection.

 

 

More clear glassware! I love the idea of having a large cake buffet and using different sizes, shapes, and styles of clear or milk glass cake stands to display your desserts.

 

 

It's not everyone's style (and antique furniture shouldn't always be painted, especially if the wood's in good condition), but I liked this little blue desk! Obviously it can function as furniture for everyday life, but at an event a piece like this could also shine. I see it as a dessert or drink stand or a cute guest book table!

 

 

There was a great collection of soda bottles at one store. We'd previously scored a ton (45!) of assorted Vess soda bottles from a Craigslist seller, plus we had a 7-Up bottle and two Dr. Peppers, so I knew a bottle would really have to blow me away to end up in my cart. Lo and behold, this one did:

 

 

A heart with "KC" in the middle made by Love Bottling Co.? Seriously? Brides in the Kansas City area should love this guy! I know I do!

 

 

I was also drawn to light blue depression glass on this trip. I'd never actually seen any before and didn't know they'd made pieces in blue (just pink, yellow, and green). Maybe it's a regional thing, and for some reason the blue pieces are distributed more in the South? In any case, I found an adorable sugar and creamer set in the sweet blue shade!

 

 

I also get tickled when I'm shopping and I spy items we already have, particularly when we've scored them for less money than the seller is asking for them. (What can I say, I love a good deal!)

 

 

We actually have the two green pieces in the upper left of this photo--a large vase and a footed candy dish, except our candy dish still has its original lid, score!

 

 

I absolutely loved the look of these wooden library card catalog boxes. They're on our wish list! They make a great holder for escort cards, but can also function as a card box or just as a stand for vases to create a layered, collected look at your event. We currently have a gray metal catalog holder for rent.

 

 

In the photo below, I love the hand-painted signs (how cute would these look as garden decor, or in the kitchen?) They inspire me to get on it already and paint some more signs for rental!

 

 

We have a stack of wood, white paint, and some inspiration photos (below), so we just need to do it. I think a Wednesday Crafternoon post will be headed your way shortly...

 

I also love the stacked coca-cola crates at the bottom of the photo. I'd been eying coke crates for some time, and bought a red one in early June that rents for $5. It's the yellow one that's harder to find for a good price!

 

 

And here's what else I ended up with:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall, it was a successful road trip in many ways--we had fun exploring Anna's new home, and we all scored some awesome treasures!

 

 

A Tale of Two Banners

Noticed our banner?  Brittany and I are totally loving it--though we didn't have the same vision at first.  Of course two sisters will have occasional disagreements, even sisters that are best friends and business partners like us! Our first official business disagreement arose during our banner photoshoot.

We completed the task after nearly 4 hours (!!!) of photographing all of our inventory in the hot sun, so I'm sure that our desire to get back into air conditioning contributed to our slightly crabby moods, thus priming us to have a minor squabble. We'd happily agreed upon the items to use in our banner photo, including our favorite typewriter, a selection of lovely glassware, and a few paper crafts. We'd also agreed upon the site of our photo backdrop--the weathered wood on our mother's back porch. I began styling first, scattering items above the bunting and overlapping the frame.

Then Brittany chimed in "Doesn't it look a little...kooky?"

Now I admit to you that I am kooky and I fully embrace those parts of my personality.  I sing and use accents at random.  I eat M&Ms in even numbers so that I eat the same number of each color on the left and right sides of my mouth.  On Halloween, I dress up like a Roberts dairy milk carton (my last name is Roberts after all!) And Brittany is also genetically pre-disposed (judging by how our parents and other relatives act) to be a little kooky. 

But hearing my banner design dubbed kooky did not fill me with confidence.  Like a mama cub, I defended my original decision, but Brittany insisted that it felt cluttered.  We agreed to disagree.  We decided we'd each make our own version of the banner and then take our favorite bits from each to blend a final product.  

Since this was a group effort, I'll let Brittany step in here to describe what she liked best about my banner!

First, I totally agreed that the frame looked best on the left, since we planned to add text in there and the eye naturally reads text from left to right. I also loved how Megan had styled the books so that you could see the cool design on the blue book's spine, along with the lovely patterned orange cover. Plus, the stack of mismatched china looked great--I especially loved how the milk glass plate was placed next to the pinwheels so that it almost looked like one of them! I'd been worried that the cluster of glassware up at the top of the frame would make things look too cluttered (or kooky, ha!), but ultimately I love how it turned out! I'm glad that I trusted Megan's judgment on that one. Sometimes we just need to not trust our gut reactions! 

And now back to Megan to describe what was working in my arrangement.

Here is Brittany's banner design:

Adorable, right?  She pulled out a few more of our inventory items to add more color and texture to the photo--a burnished silver teapot and a milk glass pedestal bowl. She also used more pinwheels than my design and I love the punch of color.  The stacked books add dimension.  What you can't see is that she used a Coca-Cola bottle to prop it up--ingenious!  The birdcage is laid on its back, which is a better angle from the camera's bird's eye view.  Back to Brittany!

So with our two different stylings in mind, we decided to create our perfect banner together! Originally we planned to look at the pictures of both of our arrangements and pick the top three things we liked about each to more purposefully fuse them (sorta like the first season of HGTV's Secrets from a Stylist, with two distinct room designs merging together), but then we realized that it made most sense to just jump into styling the photo together. So we removed all of the items and began styling away in tandem. It worked out perfectly! It turns out we naturally implemented things we both liked from each others' design, and we also arranged things in ways we didn't think of at all in our original stylings! We kind of got out our kinks in the first two arrangements, so that things went very smoothly when we united because we really began to trust each others' instincts.

In our joint styling, we returned the typewriter to where Megan had positioned it in the corner--it felt a little cluttered when it was placed next to the chunky frame, and it really draws the eye to that upper corner. We ended up wanting more color, so we popped in a blue-patterned salad plate & amber sherbet cup. Both of us loved how the plate looked when clustered with the pinwheels, so we added the green bowl to bring in more of the sage color to that corner. We also opened up the lunch box, migrated the pinwheels to the corner, and mixed up the items above the bunting for more interest (rather than having all glassware up there).


Now all that was left to do was crop the photo and add our text! I played around a little without Megan and came up with this...

...And then together we decided that we'd like to crop the photo a bit more, place our full name in the frame, and remove the tagline (which we felt made the banner feel a bit cramped). Here's what we ended up with:

And we both love it! I think that styling this shot helped prepare us for any disagreements that may arise when we're setting up an event or just decorating our studio space :) Turns out things really do turn out better when we work together.