Renting chairs for a wedding at the Peristyle in Prospect Park

April 5, 2023 1:52 PM

I've got a small family wedding planned in August at the Peristyle in Prospect Park. Is there any way I can rent 30 chairs for a Friday morning and have them delivered? If not, how can we make good choices about minimizing time and stress?

Renting a UHAUL and picking up/dropping off at a warehouse is a choice of last resort, because this wedding is just me, my fiancee, our elderly parents, our siblings, all of whom have children under 4, and our officiant, whose wife will be gravidly pregnant with identical twins.

We don't have a lot of budget to throw at this, but spending a couple hundred bucks (or more) on not having to drive a truck and haul chairs on my wedding day would be money well spent. In my imagination, we might be able to find a moving company to pick up chairs, roll up to the park curb, carry them in, have lunch on my dime for two hours while we hold a 15-min ceremony and eat cupcakes, and then roll back up to pick up and drop off. If wishes were horses.

In terms of research, I haven't been able to find any leads online, looking through Reddit, the Knot, photographers' websites shooting Peristyle weddings, various other Google results. There's even a random wedding-planning site where someone asked this question with no answers.

I reached out to the first chair-rental place in Google results and got a quote, but they only rent chairs for self-pickup Friday morning before 10am and self-dropoff the following Monday, which wouldn't be feasible.

I haven't reached out to the Prospect Parks Alliance directly for several reasons. To begin with, getting the permit for the Peristyle itself was a major solid from the events coordinator, who reached out about a last-minute cancellation. While there is a separate permit for vehicles, the events coordinator was adamant that we would not be able to bring vehicles into the park. I also don't feel it's appropriate to ask NYC Parks or Prospect Parks Alliance staff for vendor recommendations, or to tell me how to do things I should be able to figure out for myself. If this question doesn't generate any leads, however, I will be reaching out.

Thanks for any suggestions you can offer.

posted by anonymous to Travel & Transportation (6 answers total)

Sort of a left-field idea but you could try reaching out to LeFrak Center at Lakeside. They certainly have plenty of facilities and equipment for events held there, and it’s right down the drive within the park, so maybe you could pay them to wheel a couple of racks of chairs over for a few hours.
posted by staggernation at 2:13 PM on April 5, 2023

I work for a different NYC park and I’d encourage you to go ahead and ask the contact who helped you get the spot! Just in a way like “oh incidentally , we’re planning to bring in chairs, can you recommend anyone?” My park doesn’t do weddings but we host tons of events and there are ready-made procedures in place for tons of different contingencies. It’s not an imposition, it’s part of the job!
posted by showbiz_liz at 2:31 PM on April 5, 2023 [3 favorites]

This party rental place has a truck...it might be worth asking if they would deliver for something like this. You might have to carry the chairs from the curb yourselves, though.
posted by pinochiette at 3:16 PM on April 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

Preferred vendors for the picnic house are listed here, which includes decor vendors. Broadway Party Rental is the equipment supplier, so they likely have approved access to the park, but that's not a given. Your coordinator will guide you on this.
posted by icaicaer at 4:36 PM on April 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

Yup, echoing pinochiette, the search terms you want are "party rental" or "event rental." Just from a quick "Party rental NYC" Google search myself I found New York Party Rentals, Big Dawg Party Rentals, and All Borough Party Rentals. Places like this should have trucks & staff to deliver and pick up for a fee - although doing so on a weekend may cost more than a deliver or pickup on a weekday.

They'll also have specialized chair dollys/carts to move multiple chairs at once, probably not the kind of thing a moving company would have, and while you might be able to rent them not the kind of thing you want to wrestle yourself.

I reached out to the first chair-rental place in Google results and got a quote, but they only rent chairs for self-pickup Friday morning before 10am and self-dropoff the following Monday, which wouldn't be feasible.

Hunh. The first non-Google-Map result I got from "Chair Rental NYC" is that New York Party Rentals I linked above, and they will definitely deliver, and the second Google Map result was the All Borough Rental, who also clearly state they'll deliver. It's possible if you're doing this soon - like, within the next couple of months - whoever you contacted is simply out of trucks and staff to deliver; they've got the chairs to rent but simply no way of getting them to you.

Also strong second for showbiz_liz's idea to reach out to the event coordinator - arranging for this is not at all unusual for them, and many venues and event spaces will have a list of "preferred vendors" for things like this. Which might involve some kickbacks, but might be something as simple as "these guys are friendly and know how to deal with the fact that 150 feet is as close as they can get to the building with the truck."
posted by soundguy99 at 4:39 PM on April 5, 2023

Try Creative Impressions, they're on Flatbush Avenue.
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:07 PM on April 5, 2023