Indianapolis event rental business creates ‘Rent the Table’ for the holidays and beyond

It’s a common dilemma. Family and/or friends are coming to your house for the holidays or a small dinner party. You want to impress your guests with a picture-perfect table setting, but you don’t have the time or skill set to put it all together.

What do you do? If you live in the Indianapolis area, you contact A Classic Party Rental in Indianapolis for its “Rent the Table” solution.

So, what is this solution? “It’s a curated tablescape design that offers you everything you need for your tabletop — plates, glassware, flatware, runner, napkins, votives, a place card and menu card. We even added a black Sharpie and a place-setting guide. You open your box and literally have everything you need to decorate your table. Each box is packaged in fours so it can be easily lifted by anyone. Convenience and ease were key in the design,” says Gina Glas, CERP, managing partner, who also serves as ARA of Indiana treasurer.

Glas saw the idea on social media this past October, a little less than a month before Thanksgiving. “I thought it was a great idea. I tested the idea with a few other people who said they loved it and would go for it. I didn’t know if we could pull it off in three weeks, but our entire team worked together. Chung Chow, our brand manager, designed each look. We didn’t have a lot of time. We just had this idea and thought we would give it a try. There was no playbook for this. We were just designing and having fun working together,” she says.

Before they went public with the campaign, Glas took a box home for a small dinner party she was hosting. “I gave my 6-year-old daughter the place setting guide that was included in the box. She unpacked the box and set the entire table as I prepped the food. It was wonderful,” she says.

With the confirmation that this idea worked, she launched it Nov. 1 with three holiday-themed tablescapes — The Haven, The Marlo and The Juniper. Glas advertised it on the company’s website and social media, even partnering with influencers. “It is really a visual concept. People need to see it in action. Partnering with influencers who opened the box and set their table from start to finish was an important piece of the marketing,” she says. 

The thrust was creating a “seamless, convenient solution for homeowners,” Glas says. “I think the person who would use it is someone like me who is a mom who is working full time. They care about offering a beautiful table for an in-home party, but they just don’t have the time to pull it off. We created these curated looks for them where all they have to do is go online, choose their look with one click and add it to their wish list. Our event specialists receive it on the other end and send them a quote. The person can reserve and pay for it online — 100 percent can be done online. They don’t even have to speak to anyone because people don’t usually have time to do that around the holidays. I know for me, going online and choosing a look that I know is designed by a designer — one that is thoughtfully and well done — that I can pick up or be delivered, and then I can easily return, is great.”

Plus, the boxes are designed to leave space for other holiday shopping. “The idea was that it could easily fit in your trunk if you were going to pick it up. Four place settings per box. In this regard, you pick up two boxes and still have room in your trunk for everything else, including your Costco run for the other things you need,” she says.

While there wasn’t a whole lot of time to market the solution before Thanksgiving, it created enough buzz and orders that Glas plans to do it again for Christmas.

“We realize that this is not for everyone. Some people want to come in and pick out every single item for their table, but we believe there is a group out there that this is for. It is fast, convenient and takes the hassle out of setting a beautiful table for your guests,” she says.