Do you want to start a wedding rental related business? If YES, here are 30 best wedding rental related ideas & opportunities you can start with no money.
Wedding days are big days especially for brides. It is a day everything has to be perfect, from the wedding venue to the cake and of course the dress. But what happens when this big day is approaching, but there are no finances to sponsor the thousand and one little details? Well, it’s either the couple take a loan, or they decide to go the way of renting.
Why Start a Wedding Rental Business?
A wedding rental business can be relatively easy to start. You can start very small and grow it from there, or you can launch-in as a large-scale provider. A wedding rental business can give you the flexibility of being your own boss and including your family in your operations, or branching out and hiring employees when you are able.
The wedding industry is a very profitable industry as approximately 2.5 million weddings are held every year in the united states. The United States wedding industry was estimated to be worth $53.4 billion as of 2013. This figure has definitely increased and would keep increasing.
If you want to take advantage of this profitable industry, here are a few unique wedding rental business ideas you can key into.
Best Wedding Rental Business ideas
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Rent out wedding gowns and reception dresses
It is a fact that a lot of brides now prefer to rent their wedding gowns, because, let’s face it, it is only going to be used for one day. You can start renting out wedding and reception dresses for brides and their maids. The wedding dress rental business is a relatively simple rental business to start.
You stock up on wedding dresses, and brides come to rent the dress for a certain period of time and pay a fee (often a daily fee). This can be both a full time business and a side business where you can see clients after work. Once a fee has been agreed upon, it is standard practice to ask for a returnable deposit to cover any damage to the dress.
Not only that but when someone has paid a deposit on something, they tend to look after it better. Also make up a basic contract document that would contain the name of person hiring the dress, time to return the dress (and if there is a late fee) as well as wording to make the person hiring responsible for any damage to the dress.
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Rent out wedding accessories
Wedding gown is not the only thing a bride needs to spend money on, she also needs to get the proper accessories. You can start a wedding accessories rental business and start renting out things like jewelry sets, bridal earrings, tiara, crown, headpiece, wedding veils, wedding clutch purses, hand gloves, rhinestone bracelets, and pearl bracelets to brides. You can offer trial at home and delivery at home options.
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Start a wedding venue rental business
One other thing that costs a bunch in a wedding is the reception venue. Naturally, every couple gets to rent a venue for their wedding reception, unless they want to do it at home at their backyard. The cost of renting a venue depends on the location and physical structures.
Highbrow areas attract huge sum in comparison to middle-class locations. You could set up a business where you get to help intending couples rent their wedding reception. To start, you need to have a catalogue of all the venues with their prices so they can choose, then you contact the owners and make the arrangement.
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Wedding suits rental business
The bride is not the only one that gets to rent her ensemble, the groom can do so too. Smart suits can be very expensive so starting a suit rental business is a good idea.
You need lots of funds to purchase the suits and a good store location. Once you stock your shop, you need to find a way to market to intending couples. Just like you would do for brides, you need to draw up a contract your customers can sign and make them pay a deposit in case of damage.
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Create and sell rental tracking software
People who rent out items for a living know that tracking their merchandise can be quite difficult sometimes. You may have rented a dress out and still think it’s in the shop or you may lose track of people who never returned your items. This is why a wedding rental tracker is a necessity.
The wedding rental tracker would help you as a renter to track your inventory, take online bookings and track your items using both a barcode scanner and non-barcoding approach. You can start creating this software and selling them to wedding rental businesses.
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Online wedding rental business
If you really desire to start a wedding rental business, but do not have the capital to rent a brick and mortar store, you can start your wedding rental business online. The first thing you need to do is get your stock ready, tagged and itemized, then you get a very user friendly website where you can display your stock.
You need to get your website SEO optimized so it can rank tops when people search for wedding rental businesses on Google. Once your business is firmly set up online, then you need to start advertising it. You should do both online and offline adverts so you can get the best of both worlds.
Most brides are all for the show and luxury, and they would love to arrive at their wedding venue in style. They prefer luxury cars like limousines, Porsches etc. to ferry them to the occasion. You can take advantage of this to start a luxury wedding car hire service.
This business is capital intensive because you have to spend good money in buying the vehicles, even if you plan to get them second hand. You can also offer to decorate the vehicles for them and provide a chauffeur, all at a cost. If the business is marketed well, you can recoup your investments in a short while.
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Cooling van rental business
A lot of wedding receptions do not provide drinks, so couples usually bring their own drinks. Since it would be tactless to serve your guests warm drinks, you ought to hire a cooling van to take care of it. This makes the cooling van rental business a very profitable one because you can as well rent it out for other events. This business is mobile and with the right marketing strategy, you will have a wedding to attend every week.
There is no doubt that there are a lot of rich couples that would want to wed in style and are always on the lookout for the unconventional.
These are the types that would love to wed on air aboard a private jet. If you have the financial muscle and wherewithal, you can start a private jet rental business where you get to rent them out to couples for weddings, and to ferry them to their honeymoon locations.
Instead of getting an already covered venue, some couples prefer the outdoors and they usually rent tents to keep out the elements. You can start a party tent rental business where you get to rent out quality party tents, canopies, wedding tents, marquees, shelters and gazebos to couples for their weddings.
Party tent renting is a wonderful opportunity for individuals who want to make an easy extra income. Note that you have to ferry the tents to the venues, set them up and take them off after the events.
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Wedding decoration and supplies rental
The wedding reception is usually a full blown party and it needs all the party paraphernalia to be a hit. You can start renting out wedding decorating and supplies to intending couples. You can start with tulle and candles to wedding arches, giant bows for the car, favours, stationery, balloons, chair sashes and confetti. You can then add tables and chairs when you can afford to.
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Musical Instrument Rental
Music is the life of a wedding, and music instrument renting would be the way to go if you want to latch into the wedding rental business. As musical instrument is costly, people always prefer to have them on rent instead of buying them.
You can rent out to wedding bands and bands that perform at other such events. If you can, you can also double as a performer. When renting out your musical instruments, you take a lot of risk so you need to draw up an iron-clad contract to protect your investment in case of loss or damage.
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Multimedia Projector Rental
Multimedia projector is one of the most useful equipment in a conference, training or seminars and even weddings if one is planning for a crowd. With proper marketing plan, you can initiate this business with moderate startup capital investment. It is best you have plans to handle the projector yourself or send in a trusted associate.
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Rent out specialty linens
Brides are getting fancier these days and are choosing special colorful lines to add to their day. If you have an eye for good linens, you can start stocking and renting out tablecloths, toppers, runners etc. all in lace, sequins, spandex, organza, satin, shantung, lamour, sheer voile, and much more. You can grow this business quickly if you are publicity savvy.
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Rent out Tiffany/Chiavari chairs
Tiffany/Chiavari chair is a wooden chair of Ligurian design. These chairs are the standard for elegant event seating. Seen at weddings, award shows, and banquets, chiavaris help create an iconic look that is difficult to duplicate with just about any other seating option.
They come in various colors, including gold, brown, silver and white, and you can charge for delivery, room set-up and pick-up the following day. If you can access these chairs in large quantities, you can start renting them out for weddings.
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Rent classy portable toilets
Weddings that take place in the outdoors usually have a loo problem. To avert this, couples usually hire classy portable toilets.
The classy loos usually feature cabinetry, marbled sinks, rugs and a black-tie attendant. Companies typically charge about $3,500 for an eight-hour rental. You can negotiate with the manufacturers to start renting out the toilets pending when you can afford to own them.
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Rent out mood lights
Have you gone into a reception hall or conference room you knew before but you could barely recognize it now? That would be the effect of mood lights well done. Lighting can make all the difference in a room. When done effectively, it can transform a mundane ballroom into a winter wonderland or an undersea paradise.
It is best to pair your mood light rental business with a certain venue so that clients will be more inclined to use you. If you are quite familiar with the play of lights, you can start renting out mood lights to intending couples for their big day.
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Rent photo booths
A photo booth is a vending machine or modern kiosk that contains an automated, usually coin-operated, camera and film processor. Having a photo booth at a wedding provides a lot of fun for the guests as it helps them to mingle. The newlyweds can get some great black-and-white snapshots inside the booth and then open it up to guests.
Guests can choose their favorite image, cut it out and paste it into the sign-in album, and take their remaining pictures home. This is another good wedding rental business and the wedding picture booth practice is really catching on at weddings these days.
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Audio Equipment Renting
If you are holding an outdoor wedding, then you would definitely need audio equipment. If you have very effective audio equipment at your disposal, you can decide to start renting them out for a fee. You should not only focus at weddings as you can spread out to banquets, meetings, outdoor events, panel discussions, press conferences etc.
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Camera and Accessories Renting
Cameras would always feature at weddings because photographs must be taken to preserve the memory. If a couple decides to have a friend take their photographs but the friend doesn’t have a good camera, they can always rent one. If you have a dormant camera and its accessories, you could put them up for rental. Ensure that you are not renting out to total strangers to avoid theft or misplacement.
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Coffee Machine Renting
Though having coffee at a wedding may sound weird, but a lot people would always prefer to have a cup of coffee after meal. If you have a standard industrial coffee maker or coffee vending machine, you can start renting out to weddings and outdoor events. This would save the couples a lot of money.
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Dumpster Renting
The primary goal of a dumpster renting business is to help clients to manage their trash in the most cost-effective way that would benefit the environment.
Any wedding held outdoor would need a dumpster. To start this business, you need to acquire classic dumpsters, and start looking for couples who intend holding their weddings outdoors. You can also rent to other outdoor events like barbecues.
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Luxury Bus Rental
This business idea is targeted at adventurous couples who may want to take their guests on a ride while holding their wedding reception right on the bus.
An entrepreneur who has experience in the travel business and is passionate about travelling can start this venture. This business is indeed capital intensive but it would be worth it in the long run if you carry out adequate marketing for it.
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Horse rental business
Do you live in a farming community? Then you know that renting out horses to a wedding party is indeed good weekend business.
One of the most important things to reflect on in starting a horse rental business is the budget. Determine how much budget you will be able to give out. Your budget will help you in finding out the quantity and quality of the horses that you are planning to purchase.
Your budget also plays a big role in the maintenance of the horses as horses are typically high maintenance animals. Horses add a certain attractiveness to a wedding and a lot of couples would like to arrive their wedding venues riding on them. This would ensure that you are always booked on weekends.
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Generator rentals
Generators are one basic necessity for an outdoor wedding. Without power, you cannot power your audio equipment, musical instruments, lighting, etc. so this business is very vital for outdoor weddings and other events that are held outdoors.
If you have generators that are currently not in use, you can start renting them out to weddings and one time even events. You can also decide to buy or lease the generators for your business.
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Farm table rental
Farm tables are custom-built tables with a solid plank top that has a rustic feel. Farm tables are used as guest tables at wedding receptions and holiday parties. Each table typically seats 8 guests comfortably, and they are usually paired with Chiavari chairs and crossback vineyard chairs.
Most farm tables are handmade, and then passed down through the generations, this is probably what adds to their appeal. Not only does this arrangement help a large reception feel intimate, but the design options are endless. You can equally start renting out farm table to couples for their reception.
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Crossback chair rental
Crossback chairs are another type of chairs that make a wedding reception venue look grand, and that is why wedding planners are always on the lookout for them. You can add these chairs to your rental business.
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Start a flower rental business
Renting flowers can help an intending couple save up to 70 percent on the flower budget. Some brides equally opt to purchase fresh flowers for the bridal party and rent coordinating silks to complete their look. Flower rental is a very profitable wedding rental business. You can rent out silk flowers to be used as bouquets, corsages, boutonnieres, accent arrangements, and centerpiece designs.
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Start a wedding rental blog
One other way to key into the wedding business is to start a wedding rental blog. Here, you get to research and inform your readers on where to get the best bargains on wedding rentals. You can list out all bridal shops in your area that offer rentals.
You can also list out where to get the best decorations, rental flowers and every other thing a couple would need to rent for their wedding. You can visit these shops and solicit for a token that would enable them get favorable reviews in your blog.
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Wedding rental magazine
Very much like the wedding rental blog, you can start printing a magazine that x-rays the world of wedding rentals. You get to visit wedding rental businesses and talk about them in various issues of your magazine. If a magazine would prove too expensive to run, you can start with a colorful newsletter.