Catering Equipment Rentals / Linen Rentals
Linen rentals sized to the table, not to the guest count
Linen rentals cover the tablecloths, napkins, chair covers, skirting, overlays and runners that turn a room of rented folding tables into a room people want to sit in. It is the cheapest thing on an event order that changes how the whole room looks, and the easiest thing to order wrong.
What linen is doing
It is the surface everything else sits on
A rented banquet table is a plastic or plywood top on a folding steel frame. Under linen it is a dining table. Without it, no amount of flowers fixes it. The same goes for the buffet, the bar and the gift table, usually the least attractive furniture in the room and the pieces guests stand closest to.
It also does work nobody sees. A floor-length cloth hides the crates, power strips and caterer's boxes that live under a buffet all night. A skirted bar hides the ice bins. Cloth deadens the clatter of china on a hard top, which matters more than hosts expect in a tent with nothing soft in it.
What the category covers
Six things, each with its own counting logic
Tablecloths
The bulk of the order and all of the sizing difficulty. Ordered per table by shape and drop, never by how many people sit at it.
Napkins
One per seat at a seated meal, plus replacements, plus cocktail napkins if food is passed. Folded by catering staff on site, which takes longer than anyone allows for.
Chair covers
Fitted covers that hide a folding or banquet chair entirely. Ordered per chair and fitted by hand, so they add real time to the room setup.
Sashes and ties
The band tied around a chair or a cover. A cheap way to bring a second color into a room that is otherwise white, and the piece most often added late.
Skirting
Pleated or gathered panels clipped along the front of a buffet, a bar or a stage front. It finishes a working table that a draped cloth cannot cover neatly.
Overlays and runners
A second layer over a base cloth, or a strip down the center of a bare table. This is where texture and a second color go without recovering the whole room.
The one thing hosts get wrong
A cloth is sized by the top plus the drop, twice
Every tablecloth size is the surface of the table plus the drop you want, counted on both sides. Change either input and the size changes. Seating capacity is not an input at all.
That is why a round seating ten and a long banquet table seating ten need different linens. The round has one width in every direction, so its cloth is a circle. The banquet table is long and narrow, so its cloth is a rectangle that has to reach the floor on the long sides and the short ends at once. A cloth that floors on the sides and hangs short at the ends is the most common linen mistake at an event.
The second input is the drop, which is how far the cloth hangs from the edge. A short drop stops above the seat. A mid drop falls to around chair-seat height. A floor-length drop touches the ground. Moving up one drop adds that distance on both sides, so a round that took one size for a lap-length look takes a noticeably bigger one to reach the floor.
None of this can be settled from a guest list. Tell us the shape and the actual dimensions of the tables you are using, or rent the tables from us so we already know, and the linen sizes fall out of it.
Two questions, in order
Linen sizing guide
Pick the table you are covering, then pick how far you want the cloth to hang. Each answer describes what that drop means for the linen and what it reads as in the room.
Short drop on a round
The smallest circle of the three, stopping well above the seat. Table legs and the frame stay visible, so it only works where the tables themselves look good. Casual daytime events and rustic setups use it. It is the wrong choice if anything is stored underneath.
Mid drop on a round
A larger circle that falls to roughly chair-seat height. The familiar hall and hotel look. It covers the top of the legs, sits clear of the floor so nobody treads on it, and is the safest drop on a surface that is not perfectly level.
Floor-length on a round
The largest circle by a wide margin, since the added drop counts on both sides. Legs disappear and the table reads as a solid column of cloth. This is the wedding and formal dinner default, and the one worth checking on soft ground where a cloth can pick up damp.
Short drop on a banquet table
Sits above the seat on all four sides. Common on long farm-style tables where the timber is meant to show, and on working tables behind the scenes. Check the end seats: a guest at the head of the table looks straight at the leg frame.
Mid drop on a banquet table
The workhorse for long tables at a dinner. It hangs evenly on the sides and the ends, keeps clear of feet along a crowded run, and does not need the floor to be level. The cloth for a long table is a rectangle, not a bigger square.
Floor-length on a banquet table
The look most formal long-table dinners want, and the one with the trap in it. Reaching the floor on the long sides and on both ends at once takes a cloth cut for that table. Guessing a size usually gives you a cloth that floors on the sides and hangs short at the ends.
Short drop on a highboy
Rarely the right answer. A cocktail table is a small top on a tall pole and a weighted base, and a short cloth leaves all of that on show. It is used occasionally as a topper over a longer base cloth, which is a different thing from a short drop on its own.
Mid drop on a highboy
A half-covered pole looks unfinished from across a room, and guests kick the hem where it ends. If you want two colors on a cocktail table, put a floor-length base underneath and a shorter topper over it rather than stopping halfway.
Floor-length on a highboy
The standard. The pole and base vanish and the table reads as a column, which is what makes a cocktail hour look composed rather than like a set of stands. Fitted stretch covers do the same job with no hem to catch a foot.
Short drop on a service table
Almost never. A buffet or bar has boxes, bins and cases under it all night, and a short cloth puts every one of them in the guest's eyeline at the exact moment they are standing closest to the table.
Mid drop on a service table
Workable back of house, where staff need to get at what is stored underneath quickly. Out front it is a compromise nobody asked for, and the hem gets caught by staff moving in and out of the line.
Floor-length or skirted
The right answer for anything guests approach. A floor-length cloth covers a display table cleanly. Clipped skirting suits a long buffet or a bar, because pleats hang straight on a run that staff are working behind and it does not drag when the table is nudged.
Color and fabric
Two decisions that change the room more than the flowers do
Color is the obvious one, and it is worth deciding in the light rather than on a screen. A white that looks bright in a photograph reads warm under a tent top and cool under clear vinyl at midday. Ivory and true white sit very differently beside each other, and a room that mixes them by accident looks like a mistake.
Fabric is the decision hosts skip. A smooth, hard-wearing weave presses flat, hangs straight and takes an evening of service without showing every touch. A textured weave adds depth a photograph picks up. Sheer overlays layer one color over another. Heavier weaves sit better in cold weather and on a windy site, where a light cloth lifts on an open tent edge.
Bring a swatch, a flower sample or a photograph of what you are matching, and we will work from the range available for your date rather than from a catalog picture.
Match it to what goes on top
Linen and china are chosen together far more often than separately, because a plate rim reads differently against ivory than against white. See tabletop and dinnerware rentals.
Match it to what goes under
The size comes from the table, so the two orders belong together. See table and chair rentals for shapes and dimensions.
Planning a wedding
Ceremony, cocktail hour and reception each want something slightly different from the linen. See weddings for how the whole order fits together.
On site
How linen ships, hangs and gets handled
Creases are the enemy, and almost all of them are made between the truck and the table rather than in the wash.
It leaves pressed
Linen comes out of the warehouse pressed and packed by size and color, so a crew can find the right pieces without opening every bag on a tent floor.
Unpack it early
Take linen out of its bags as soon as it arrives and hang or lay it flat. Folds left in a sealed bag in a warm tent set hard, and the longer they sit the less a steamer can do about it.
Dress the tables first
Cloths go on before china, glass or centerpieces, and the hems get straightened while the table is still bare. Once a table is set, adjusting a cloth means lifting everything off it.
Steam what needs it
Stubborn folds get steamed in place. That is catering or venue staff work on most events, so agree who is doing it and how long they need before guests walk in.
The counting question
Count surfaces, not seats
Hosts count the dining tables and stop. Walk the floor plan instead and count everything with a top on it.
Dining tables
The obvious ones, plus the head table if it is a different shape from the rest, which it usually is.
Cocktail tables
Scattered through the cocktail hour and often left standing through the reception. Easy to underestimate because nobody sits at them.
The buffet line
Usually several tables pushed into a run, each needing its own cloth or a skirted front along the whole length.
Bars and back bars
The front the guests see and the working surface behind it, plus any second bar you added when the guest count went up.
Gift and cake tables
Small, photographed constantly, and the two most frequently left off the list. Both want floor-length.
Everything else with a top
Escort card tables, station tables, the sign-in table, dessert displays, and the coffee table that appears at the end of the night.
Afterward
What happens to linen at the end of the night
Linen is the one rental where how it comes back affects whether it survives. Nothing needs washing. What matters is that cloths are shaken out so food and debris are not folded in, and that they go back into their bags dry and loose rather than balled up.
Damp is the real problem. A cloth that picked up rain or spilled ice water and then sat sealed in a bag for two days comes back marked in a way a wash will not lift. If linen is wet, say so and leave the bag open. Candle wax and red wine are the other two regulars, and both are more recoverable when we know before the load reaches the machines.
Counting is by size and color, which is why keeping sizes separated during the strip saves everyone time. Then it is washed, pressed and back on the shelf.
Leave in the bag
Dry linen, shaken out, loose. Napkins can go in with the cloths as long as the sizes are not mixed across bags.
Keep out of the bag
Food scraps, broken glass, wet cloths and anything still holding ice. All four cause damage on the way back rather than during the event.
Browse and build your list
Linen in the rental catalog
Tablecloths by shape and drop, napkins, chair covers, sashes, skirting, overlays and runners, bookable with the tables and the tent on one order.
Tablecloths
Napkins
Chair covers
Table runners
From Google reviews
On how the room came together
"I was looking for an elegant setup for my event, and TGIF knocked it out of the park. Their sailcloth tent looked incredible, and the final result exceeded my expectations."
"TGIF provided excellent communication and great service. Our party was a huge success, and everything was delivered at a great price. I will definitely use them again and recommend them to anyone planning an event."
Straight answers
The questions that come up with a floor plan in hand
Send the floor plan
Tell us the tables and we will size the linen
Shapes, dimensions, how many of each, and the drop you want. We will count the surfaces you have not counted yet and load the linen with the tables and the tent from our warehouse in Holtsville.