Weddingbee boards

I'm not familiar with disposible china, but depending on how you feel about everything matching what we're doing might work for you. 

My FI and I have been hitting up our local thrift stores and buying up any cool plates we can find.  Some of them aren't very interesting or pretty but others look like they could belong to grandma.  So far they've been ranging from $0.25 to $1 a piece, which isn't as cheap as plastic, but it's more environmentally friendly and we'll be donating the majority back when we're done with them.  Hooray for charity donations and tax write offs!  Actually, a lot of them are cool enough we're thinking we're going to donate the plates we have now and keep the best ones after the wedding! 

Oh, and unless your wedding is really huge, I don't think you'll have too many problems finding enough.  We're collecting 225 and we've bought almost half of them so far in just two days of looking!  (Not to mention this is in Cheyenne, WY and Fort Collins, CO of all places.  We haven't even had to hit up Denver yet!) 

Two more tips, avoid Antique stores, you want Thrifters and tell the people there about your wedding and what you're doing.  So far we've gotten some pretty decent discounts as a "wedding gift" when we've told them what we're looking for and that we'll be back to buy a bunch more.  (One place we bought $10 worth of silverware which was priced at a whopping $1 per dozen plus a dozen plates and we basically ended up getting the plates for free!)

Also, I think we'll be using biodegradable "chinet" plates for cake. 

Not sure if that's very helpful to you or not, but I hope it gives you some ideas!

Sorry, I know this probably doesn't help you too much but I'm so excited I had to share!  I just got a text from my FI and ARC thrift store is going to sell him 100 plates for $0.79 each!  Assuming there are 100 good plates, that makes 225 dishes from 6 stores in 3 days! 

SO much better than renting blah white plates for $1 a piece and hoping we don't break any because there's a $20 replacement fee!

Ok, I promise I'll quit hijacking your thread now...

@ caitlanc:  That link you sent is awesome.  If you search around the site you can find Bambu plates which are made from what else, bamboo.  They look really classy and are disposable.  They aren't super cheap but they do look great!

@ rnc620: I haven't added it all up yet, but I think (rounding up) about $250 for 225 plates, 225 table/butter knives and 60 forks.  We're averaging just about $1 per plate/knife/fork setting which would have cost $2 to rent.  We're trying to be as environmentally responsible as possible so disposable wasn't an option for us. 

As far as running around and collecting things, it's really not too bad!  For my aunt's backyard wedding last summer (~130 guests) my FI and I did a lot of clean up and we really didn't mind gathering glasses up.  People put their dirty dishes in plastic bins themselves.  The worst part was actually collecting all the beer and wine bottles and taking them to recycling!  It made me determined to have a keg and if possible, a cask of wine. 

@ rnc620: That's totally understandable.  I don't think what we're doing would work for the majority of people.  Definitely go with something that doesn't need to be cleaned.  I would just suggest (request?  plead?  :-) ) that you use biodegradable or compostable ware instead of plastic.  I know it's a bit more expensive than say Costco, but it more than pays for itself in other ways.  Weddings generate so much trash it's unbelievable!  Anything we can do to cut down on this is a huge help.