If you’re considering purchasing glassware or crystal – whether it be wholesale or retail pricing – and you’ve done research on the web or experienced firsthand some of the problems associated with glassware in commercial environments such as restaurants, caterers or party rental companies.

The 4 most common problems associated with wholesale glassware:

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Problem #1: Stems breaking or popping off the bowls

With stems breaking or popping off the bowls of the wine glass this tends to occur when the crystal stemware is being transferred to different locations – even with proper glassware racks. Generally the bumps in the road cause the wine glass bowls to separate from the stem of the glass. There’s unfortunately little that can be done to fix this if you see high rates of this happening other than buying better quality glassware. At National Event Supply, in the 2 years that we have been selling stemware, we have only heard of one party rental customer instance where 24 of their 1000 champagne flute bowls popped off the stems – and we offered to replace them free of charge on their next order.

Problem #2: Breakage Rates

It’s unfortunately the nature of the glass business. Glass is a notoriously breakable material and even with proper care and careful transportation breakage occurs. Are you aware of your breakage rates? Because of its delicate nature it makes fiscal sense to be keeping track of your breakage rates. We managed to win over a restaurant in Toronto who was averaging a breakage rate of 3 glasses per day with a higher priced glassware provider. They’re now paying 25% less per glass and so far our glasses are performing admirably.

Problem #3: Wine Glass Stems or Bowls not uniform

There are two different kinds of glassware existing on the market: handmade and machine made glassware. Machine made glass means that the molten hot glass is blown into a mold all by machine ensuring consistency of shape while retaining a steady quality. It is a much faster process and allows better affordability in the glasses produced. Handmade glass is mouth blown and molded by slowly nudging, stretching and rolling the blown glass into shape. Because of the time consuming nature of this process and how skilled the artisans must be to produce this glass, handmade glass tends to have a higher price point. Also, because it is made by an artisan, consistency – while strived for – is lacked where shape is concerned. If you have a detail discerning bride who strives for uniformity, a machine made glass will be your best bet for ensuring the quality and consistency of shape is there for her. National Event Supply only stocks machine made glassware & crystal because we want to ensure we can promise our customers a quality made, consistent product.

Problem #4: Glass or Crystal Containing Lead

Per one of our earlier blog posts on the top questions asked about crystal and glass stemware: Lead crystal has been the primary form of crystal glassware since its inception. With the recent awareness and movement away from BPA due to health concerns, there has been debate on the use of lead in crystal. It is advised that you should not use lead crystal containers to store beverages for periods of time longer than a day. As per Riedel's website, assuming that "worldwide legal standards are met and also surpassed", there are no issues or concerns with using lead crystal on a daily basis. The lead addition to the crystal and glass is supposed to add sparkle, give more weight to the stemware, and increase its durability. That being said (and we’re a little biased if truth be told) our crystal stemware sparkles just like a Twilight vampire in the sunshine. If you’re still not 100% sure lead crystal is the right move for your company, National Event Supply only stocks lead-free crystal glasses.

Banqueting tables are used by golf courses, hotels, banquet halls, convention centres, party rental vendors and any other event venue who holds functions, events and meetings requiring tables. When these companies are starting their search for new or replacement banquet tables, the most common question we encounter seems to be How much does a banqueting table cost in Canada? This blog post will detail the range of cost (in Canadian dollars) and the shape choices and reasons for cost variations.

Banqueting Table Types

A banqueting table generally comes in two types of material: either as a wood folding table or a plastic folding table. There are some venues that won’t touch plastic and there are some that won’t touch wood. From what we’ve seen, it solely depends on the company buying the banquet table what material they choose to purchase. Both wood & plastic folding tables come in rectangular or round in shape – with outlying shapes such as square, serpentine and half moon existing for more specialized table uses. For the purposes of this blog post we will be examining Wood / Plastic Rectangle and round folding banqueting tables.

Wood Rectangle Folding Banqueting Tables

The cost of a wood rectangle folding table varies dramatically in the Canadian market and ranges in price from $65.95 CDN - $152.90 CDN. The price tends to vary based on the kind of wood the plywood is made from, whether it’s solid plywood or plywood veneer over MDF, the size of the plywood banquet table (a 4ft rectangle table is generally less expensive than a 8ft rectangle table), the load capacity of the table and the finishing of table edges (metal/aluminum edges tend to cost more than vinyl edges).

Plastic Rectangle Folding Banqueting Tables

The cost of a plastic rectangle folding table varies dramatically in the Canadian market and ranges in price from $44.95 CDN - $155.10 CDN. The price tends to vary based on the size of the plastic banquet table and the load capacity of the table.

Wood Round Folding Tables

The cost of a wood rectangle folding table ranges from $89.95 CDN - $199.00 CDN in the Canadian Market. The price tends to vary again based on the kind of wood the plywood is made from, whether it’s solid plywood, the size of the round banquet table, the load capacity of the table and the finishing of the table edges.

Plastic Round Folding Tables

The cost of a plastic round folding table ranges from $79.95 CDN - $185.00 CDN in the Canadian Market. The price tends to vary again based on the size of the plastic banquet table and the load capacity of the table.

Shipping costs on Banqueting Tables:

The shipping costs of these tables usually run $21.00 – $54.00 per table depending on the size / weight of the order (shipping costs tend to decrease dramatically per piece based on larger volume), where it is shipping from and where it is shipping to. The shipping costs vary solely on volume, weight and shipping location. Wood banquet tables will have slightly more expensive shipping rates than plastic banquet tables due to their weight. Nationally based suppliers to the hospitality industry will have multiple warehouses across the country to provide better shipping rates coast to coast. Also keep in mind that suppliers in the United States often may not have factored in the duties and customs fees associated with trans-border linen shipments – which tend to add an additional cost to each piece (above and beyond the exchange associated with the Canadian / United States Dollar).

I am excited to be able to share with you that we have recently added new event glassware and bar glassware to our existing wholesale glassware and crystal stemware lines! Again with it being container season, our strong employees were unloading yet another container of bar equipment yesterday. To showcase the new additions to our bulk glassware I’ve outlined each below for your easy reference.

Because of how popular our Serenity Crystal line was, we’ve brought in an entirely new line of Crystal Glasses.

Introducing Victoria Crystal

Our new line of Victoria Crystal is available in a wider selection of glassware than we’ve ever previously stocked. The following crystal is lead free, dishwasher safe for easy use and cleaning in a high-volume commercial environment featuring smooth polished rims, pulled stems for comfort and machine made for quality and consistency. The entire line includes the following glasses (in the picture from left to right):

• 28oz Crystal Wine Glass
• 9oz Crystal Margarita Glass
• 10oz Crystal Old Fashioned Glass
• 13oz Crystal Highball Glass
• 23oz Crystal Wine Glass

Along with introducing a new line of crystal, we also added a 14oz Beer/water glass to the Serenity Crystal line.

We’ve also added a 14oz wine glass to the Eclisse Glassware line.

This winter has been particularly rough for Canada and it seems to be having a hard time letting go. With spring on its way or already here in some of the country, a lot of Golf Courses are starting to prepare for the upcoming season. When working on the events and weddings taking place at your venue this event season, ensuring you have the proper chairs in place for your upcoming events can help you win more event business – especially outdoor weddings. While Gold Chiavari Chairs are the hottest trend this year often when brides looking to optimize their budgets see how much chiavari chairs cost to rent they start looking at more cost effective options.

Enter the white resin folding chair or black resin folding chair.

These chairs are perfect options for brides looking for high-style at lower costs and they’re perfect options for golf courses looking for high quality strong chairs. Check out 4 reasons why these chairs make a great option for outdoor events.

1. Stack easily:

Golf Courses and event venues looking for chairs that don’t take up a lot of space will love the fact that these folding chairs are stackable and folding chair carts can be purchased to easily transport 30-40 chairs per cart (depending on the height of the door you’re going through).

2. Low Maintenance:

Because these chairs are made of resin that is the same colour throughout, you won’t have to deal with scratches showing up should wear and tear occur. Also, because the seats are not fabric but vinyl – staining does not occur.

3. Strong and Durable:

Because we want to ensure our chairs can withstand the wear and tear associated with multiple events we have stress tested a number of our products by piling bags of salt on them. The white resin folding chair broke at 750lbs in this video – How much weight can a white resin folding chair hold? Because black padded folding chairs are made of the exact same material as the white resin chairs, you can assume they would have the same break point.

4. Good return on investment:

Wholesale white resin chairs sell for a range-between $29-$41.00 CDN. Assuming you are offering these chairs at an additional cost at your venue, most golf courses and venues recoup their initial investment after 3 – 5 events utilizing these chairs. As these chairs last well beyond 3-5 events (we have customers that rent these chairs out for years) they are the perfect wedding or event product to make additional revenue on for years to come.

There’s obviously a business case for Chiavari chairs and as we sell them there’s obviously venues, golf courses and party rental companies that buy them but if you’re looking for an alternative, stylish and cost-effective chair option for outdoor weddings or events, consider the white resin folding chair.

Utilizing Mahogany Chiavari Chairs & Wedding Linens Direct from National Event Supply to Make an Event Pop!

I came across a fabulous wedding which took place at the Brock House Restaurant in Vancouver and thought it was such a beautiful event that it deserved a nod on our blog.

Party rental companies who also do event design or event planning will truly appreciate the little details this wedding has that makes it a truly beautiful, vintage chic wedding as the author Stephanie Weers of Style me Pretty has classified it as.

I thought that deconstructing some of the key wedding pieces using National Event Supply’s products as well as others would be an interesting way to pull together new themed looks for our readers.

Instead of using the traditional rounds, the bride and groom along with their event planner Petite Pearl Events chose a different route utilizing rectangle tables. If you’re hoping to achieve this same look you could use wood harvest tables covered in ivory wedding linens direct from National Event Supply.

For seating, the wedding went the traditional classic chiavari chair route. The same look can be achieved with National Event Supply’s Mahogany Chiavari Chairs with Plywood Base Chiavari Chair Cushion in White.

As far as wedding tableware, I’ll break it down into wedding dishes, event glassware, and wedding cutlery. Wedding dishes – feature a white dinnerware set with rolled rim similar to the Hotelier white dinnerware line. The cup is so similar that I wondered if it was the Hotelier dishes!

Event Glassware could be achieved with the Eclisse 11oz water glass and the Eclisse 12oz wine glass or utilizing the Serenity Crystal stemware collection should wholesale crystal stemware be a preference to the couple.

Wedding cutlery could be achieved utilizing Concord Cutlery a popular flatware line.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the photographer of this event, Vasia Photography, who shot some truly glorious images all shown above.

For full details including a touching write up on the wedding, go to Style Me Pretty to read more.