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I am looking for approximately 80 parasols for our guests to use during the ceremony and cocktail hour as it will hopefully be very sunny! 

The rental place now only sells their parasols for $6.50 each instead of renting them; so I wanted to find them for less.

Oriental Trading Company has Paint-Your-Own parasols for $2.50 each - by far the cheapest I've found (picture below).  We will not be painting them.

My questions:

1.) Has anyone ordered these - are they good enough quality?

2.) Where else have you bought these or where should I look?

3.) Would I be able to resell these for $1 each?  If anyone is getting married after Aug 23 in Sonoma/Napa/Bay Area - they are all yours as I certainly don't need 80 parasols!

Thanks,

Erin 

Link to parasols

The image isn't initially coming up for me, but works when I select "view larger" towards the bottom of the page.

Thanks!

What a great find

I'm doing these...

http://decoglamwedding.vox.com/library/photo/6a00e398c206fc000300f48ce02fc20003.html

from Cultural Intrigue.

i've used the oriental trading company parasols.  they make great giveaways for guests actually.  just wrap a pretty colored ribbon around them when they're closed and they look fabulous.  they were also the best price i found around. 

they are definitely made out of paper though, so if they've been opened by a guest, i'm not sure if they'd be nice enough to sell again, like suzanno said.  but if they haven't been touched, then i don't see why you can't.  however, if you have them out for guests to use, i'm not sure that you'd get them back.  might as well just give them away because they might just take them anyway.

here are some pictures of the parasols as they were used in a wedding i've workd at:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/aoedorothee/sets/72157603728855153/  and they were so popular that we definitely ran out of them.  we did not receive any back.

I got 'em!  They're not perfect, but you can't beat the price. 

The biggest "issues" I would expect are:  they're definitely not pristine white -- they're off-white; they show signs of why they're so cheap -- the ribs aren't all the same size, it's a fairly thin paper, the edging is not fancy, the top -- uh, I dunno what to call it, that knobby thing on the top -- is covered in something resembling masking tape. 

They do look quite nice in photos, tho', particularly B/Ws.

I also bought -- and returned -- the cheap parasols from the Knot.  I returned 'em 'cause I didn't like the design on them (you can't pick what you get, only the color). Those were nylon rather than the paper that OTC uses. 

Princess Kitty - Are they reusable - could they be used for more than 1 wedding?  I wanted to share them with another bride, but if one wedding is going to be the lifespan of the parasol, then I won't be able to share them.  You returned the nylon Knot ones - so that means the paper is better than the nylon?  And finally, will they actually shade the sun - or is the paper too thin to even produce shade? 

Oh, one more thing, my mom just asked me how the people sitting behind the people with the parasols are able to see the ceremony...

Thank you! 

Does anyone know where the Bee post is about putting tags on the parasols asking people to put them down for the actual ceremony (per Suzanno's post above)?  I'm having trouble finding it. Thanks, E

Hi enmoore!

If people treat them gently (and it doesn't rain), I'd say that yes, they are reusable.  I was able to fold and unfold them several times.  I made an aborted attempt to hand paint them myself...I'm a better artist in my head than I am on paper...hee-hee!...and therefore opened and closed several of them a bunch of times.  No problems; you just have to do it gently. If you decide to share, the 2nd bride might want to have a back up plan in case they don't look so hot when done...or if she plans to paint them, that might be OK -- like paint a solid color or do the cute sponge-y painting trick (common for kids' bedroom walls). And if bride2 is planning on using them for the same purpose - basic sunshade, then maybe she won't care if they are not super pristine either.

Nylon vs. paper is kinda a personal call.  I was originally going to get parasols that already had pretty flowers on 'em, but when the Knot ones came, they didn't have flowers like in the pictures -- they had plants and trees and rocks and things...I just didn't like them very much.  So I went w/ my deluded plan to paint them myself (these were supposed to take the place of bridesmaids' bouquets).  And killed that.  Thank goodness for my florist who came up w/ $15/ea. bouquets for the girls!  =)  I ended up using a couple of the parasols for photos, but now I have a box of 'em I'm not really using.  They came in handy as a "super jumbo birthday card" for a co-worker and other various things...

Nylon is actually probably more durable since it's more water resistant than paper.  But it can have that sort of sheen that makes it look shiny-in-a-cheap-way...depends where you get 'em and what color they are.  

Either will provide shade, but I think in both cases the materials used are fairly thin and pale colored, so there can be *some* sun filtering through.  All in all, I'd say they are far more about the aesthetic than about the practical useability.  They'll give ya basic shade, if that's all you're after.

PS -- as far as durability, I'd go w/ suzanno or aoedorothy's advice -- it sounds like they've had experience with actually using them in real weddings; I just played w/ mine at home and on a photo shoot -- I was the only one handling it, so I was pretty gentle on it.

If you decide to just give 'em away as favors, I found (later) that you can draw on them pretty easy (use a VERY light touch) with regular markers (they have the kind w/ brush tips -- those look nice).  Just don't stay in one spot too long.  It was MUCH easier than my attempt at real paints.  Faster and easier to control.  You could also do a teeny stamp (or several) in between the ribs that spell out your names or use your logo, etc.  That would be cute!  Not the most practical of favors, but then, probably about half the stuff we get at weddings isn't really that useful either...but boy is it cute and isn't that what matters??! 

PS -- as far as durability, I'd go w/ suzanno or aoedorothy's advice -- it sounds like they've had experience with actually using them in real weddings; I just played w/ mine at home and on a photo shoot -- I was the only one handling it, so I was pretty gentle on it.

If you decide to just give 'em away as favors, I found (later) that you can draw on them pretty easy (use a VERY light touch) with regular markers (they have the kind w/ brush tips -- those look nice).  Just don't stay in one spot too long.  It was MUCH easier than my attempt at real paints.  Faster and easier to control.  You could also do a teeny stamp (or several) in between the ribs that spell out your names or use your logo, etc.  That would be cute!  Not the most practical of favors, but then, probably about half the stuff we get at weddings isn't really that useful either...but boy is it cute and isn't that what matters??!