How much do wedding rentals cost? Price your order, chair by chair

Most answers to this question are a range and a list of item prices. Neither tells you what your order will cost, because the order depends on your guest count, your venue and what it already owns. This guide takes one real order, prices it at three rental companies in three parts of the country, and shows where the money goes.

What couples paid

The Knot's 2026 Real Weddings Study asked 10,474 couples married in 2025 what they spent. 68 percent hired a rental company.

WeddingWire's own cost guide, from what couples reported in their reviews, is much lower: $650 on average, with most couples between $425 and $1,000. Its figure also covers photo booths, and it does not give a year. The two sites measure different couples in different ways, so read them as a range. A venue that supplies tables and chairs puts you near WeddingWire's number. An empty barn or a garden puts you at The Knot's, or above it.

For where rentals sit in a whole budget, our guide to what a 100 person wedding costs builds the same wedding three ways, and the average wedding cost guide shows the other lines a venue with more included can save.

Step 1: Make the list

Start from what you need, not from a rental catalogue. Our guide to how many tables you need works out the order for 117 guests, The Knot's average, with a sweetheart table and 60-inch rounds:

• 15 round tables of 8 for the guests,
• 8 rectangular tables: your sweetheart table, a vendor table and six service tables for the cake, gifts, cards, guest book, music and escort cards,
• 132 chairs: 126 seats with about 5 percent spare,
• 23 tablecloths, one for every table.

Then ask the venue which of these it already owns, and cross them off. Everything left is your order.

Step 2: Price it, line by line

Here is that order priced at three rental companies' own published price lists, read in October 2026: one in Midland, Texas, one in Miami and one in the San Francisco Bay Area. The chairs are Chiavari, the slim ballroom chair often rented in gold or silver, with a seat cushion. The rectangles are 6-foot banquet tables.

The Bay Area company does not publish its linen prices, so its total leaves the cloths out. At the other two companies' prices, 23 cloths would add about $250 to $320.

Look at the chairs line. The chairs are 70 percent of the Midland order, 56 percent in Miami and 79 percent of the Bay Area order before cloths. The tables, the line couples spend the most time counting, are 13 to 21 percent.

Free toolWedding budget breakdownKeep what you have already booked fixed, and see what is left for everything else.Split my budget

Step 3: Choose the chair first

Because the chairs are most of the bill, the chair is the decision. Here is the same 132 chairs in each company's plain folding chair instead:

The decision rule: if the chairs will be dressed, or hidden under guests for most of the night, rent the plain chair. A chair cover or a sash costs $2.00 or $1.50 a chair in Midland, so 132 covers is $264, still well under the difference. If the chairs are part of the look you want in photos, rent the Chiavari and save somewhere else.

The table size, by contrast, hardly moves the total. Twelve 72-inch rounds instead of fifteen 60-inch ones cost $246 against $214 in the Bay Area, and $192 against $195 in Miami, where the 72-inch round is a solid-wood table. Choose the table size for the room and the centrepieces, which our tables guide covers, not for the rental price.

The second set of chairs

If your ceremony is in a different space from dinner, you need chairs in both. A second set of 117 Chiavari chairs costs $936 at the Midland price. Two cheaper ways:

1. Flip the room. Ask the venue whether its staff can move the ceremony chairs to the tables during the cocktail hour. Then you rent one set.
2. Plain chairs for the ceremony. A garden chair is $3.50 in Midland, so 117 of them is $410, against $936 in Chiavari.

What the price list does not show

Each of the three companies leaves some lines off its price list, and these are where a quote grows:

• Delivery and pickup. The Miami company quotes it by distance, a base fee for the first miles and a rate per mile beyond, and collecting from its warehouse yourself is free. Neither of the other two prints a delivery price.
• Setup and breakdown. WeddingWire says labour is usually included in a rental contract. Ask, and ask whether it includes laying the cloths or only unloading the tables.
• Extra days. The Miami company prices by the day, and a two-day hire costs more. If the delivery is Friday and the pickup is Monday, ask whether that is one day or four.
• Breakage. The Bay Area company charges replacement fees for broken or damaged items. Ask whether a damage waiver is offered and what it costs.
• Tableware. If your caterer does not bring plates, the Bay Area company rents china at $0.70 to $1.25 a piece. A dinner plate and a salad plate for 117 guests at $1.25 each is about $290, before glasses and cutlery.
• The things a field needs. A tent, a dance floor, lighting and power. WeddingWire puts a tent's average starting price at $300, with labour and generators on top.

When the quote arrives, check it against your list line by line. A quote far above your own total is usually one of these lines, and each one has a question you can ask.

Tipping the delivery crew

WeddingWire suggests $5 to $20 per person for the delivery team, and the same range is in Zola's tipping guide. Our guide to tipping wedding vendors puts it in the envelope list with everyone else.

Drawing the order

In Yes, I Do, the seating chart draws your room from above. Every table has its shape, round, oval, square, rectangle, banquet or sweetheart, and its number of seats, and you can add what else stands on the floor: the cake and gift tables, the bar, cocktail tables, the dance floor, the DJ and a marquee. Print the floor plan as a PDF and send it with your list, so the rental company, the venue and the caterer work from the same room. The seating screen shows how many people are attending and how many seats you have across how many tables, so the count you rent from is the count of people who said yes.

Questions

Sources

• The Knot Real Weddings Study 2026, full data read-out (PDF), 10,474 US couples married in 2025, for the event rentals spend by quarter and average, and the 68 percent who hired one.
• WeddingWire: wedding rentals cost guide, read October 2026, for its average and range, the tent starting price, labour and the delivery crew tip.
• MDG Party Rentals, Midland, Texas: table and chair rentals, read October 2026, for full-day prices of tables, chairs, covers, sashes and linens.
• Annabelle Party Rental, Miami: table and chair rental cost, published 15 August 2026, for per-day prices of tables, chairs, cushions and tablecloths, and how delivery is charged.
• All Seasons Event Rentals, Redwood City, California, read October 2026, for table, chair and china prices and replacement fees.