The great city of San Francisco has so much to offer. When I take a trip to a part of the city that I rarely visit, it feels like I'm on vacation. So I decided to hop a bus down to Chinatown to see if anything sparked my imagination as far as weddings are concerned. This was probably one of the best ideas I've ever had and I had a great time all by my lonesome snapping photos and eating dim sum.
There were lanterns everywhere of course. Almost every store I went in to had the ceiling completely covered. But they are so cheap and can easily transform an outdoor space. The paper lanterns above were marked $2.99 each. The fabric ones range in size from 3" to 12" and even 36". They range from $2 - $79.
I Thought these fans would make a great favor for summertime weddings. They were a steal at $1 each and come in tons of colors.
I was surprised at how cheap these parasols were. Only $5 for the larger ones and you wouldn't need that many to hang over, say...a dance floor?
I saw tiny 6 packs of these cocktail parasols all over the place for $1.50 each and then BAM! a pack of 144 for $5! These would look awesome in some mint juleps or lemonade.
So... Chinatown is kinda weird, in that all the stores have pretty much the same thing (lanterns, parasols, coin purses, etc.) and then you stumble on a box of hundreds of doilies for $1 each. This was downstairs on the floor way in the back of some store. A few feet away I found matching 54" tablecloths for $10 each. If you have visions of a vintage wedding, then you just hit the freakin' jackpot my friend.
True, you don't have to go to Chinatown to get sparklers and noisemakers, but for some reason it looks like they ordered theirs from 1955. How about sparklers instead of bird seed during your exit from the church. Ignore the stink bombs.
There were tons of straws everywhere. I can't quite figure out why, but the colors were perfect and, you guessed it...cheap! This is a great alternative to paper straws which are excruciatingly adorable, but can you really afford 300 of them?
Another thing about Chinatown, everything is on sale....all the time. There are tons of shops with a multitude of plates, bowls and cups each marked with their original price and a sale price. These bowls were $3 each and cups were $2. I know that may be a little pricey if you need to feed 100+ people, and what are you going to do with 100 orange bowls after your wedding? But they are great for candy dishes or if you need a splash of color at the self serve drink or desert table.
And finally, my new parasol mobile. I bought it because it was too pretty to pass up and at $5...c'mon. I could see a few of them hanging from trees along with some white lanterns.
My Chinatown adventure was totally worth it. I got so many great ideas and would strongly suggest you play tourist in your own city. You never know what you'll find.
