If you run more than four events a year the maths turns quickly. These are the lines that pay for themselves.
Hire pricing assumes you need a thing once. The moment you need it four times, the arithmetic changes, and it changes fastest on the items that are bulky to transport but cheap to make: plinths, easels, signage frames, cake stands, and the low tables nobody photographs but every room needs.
What is not worth owning is anything with a finish that dates. Linens, florals and colour-led styling pieces all read as last season within two years, and storing them costs you the space you would rather give to the frames and plinths that never go out of fashion.
The test we use: if it is neutral, rigid, and a pain to move, buy it. If it is soft, coloured, or fashionable, hire it.