Etsy Tuesday: Traveling in Style

For our wedding, we treated the men in our wedding parties to vintage Trav-L-Bars. I spent months searching for and sourcing them. (I'm far enough from - a year in a couple of weeks - my meltdown involving these that I can laugh about it.) As the men in our wedding and I have all been asked where I found these treasures, I'll reveal my process today.

I had a few requirements: all components must be present, the bar itself could not exceed $50, and the case color needed to match (or complement) our wedding palette. The stocking of each Trav-L-Bar was handled by my bridesman, "The Massive Bri," with a budget of approximately $100 per bar.

Our usher and official Tweeter's Trav-L-Bar midway through the reception. His bottle of Scotch had already been shared in celebratory toasts with fellow guests. Photographed by Vanessa Naylon.

Over the course of four months, I successfully located four Trav-L-Bars from the 1960s, ranging in price from $15 to $35 each, for an average price of $25.50. In the 1970s, Ever-Wear began making the bars with hard plastic molded cases and replaced the elegant utensils with bakelite handles with simple ones and the metal cups with plastic ones.

If you're looking now for a vintage portable bar, there are a few manufacturers to search for Trav-L-Bar by Ever-Wear, Platt, and The Portable Pub by Londonaire.

The Finds: Londonaire, $25, Pirate Cat's Treasures; Platt, $20 with all components and key, price reduced for damaged corner, Toadsies; Unknown, $25, FaithandHope10.

The Finds: Unknown, $28, Collectique; Ever-Wear, $35, Knockouts Vintage; Londonaire, $24.95, Baby Kiki Yaya.

Keyword combinations I use on Etsy to ferret out travel bars are as follows: Ever-Wear, Londonaire, Platt, Trav-L-Bar, travel bar, traveling bar, portable bar, and portable pub. You can also find travel bars on eBay though unless they're buy now, the prices tend to get inflated with bidding.

For our six-month wedding anniversary, I surprised cubes with his very own Trav-L-Bar, which just so happens to match my bridesman's Trav-L-Bar (this similarity was discovered at Priceless when both were present). NOTE: The Padded Top Grain Cowhide Strapping bars in brown with metal trim tend to be the hardest to find.

cubes' Trav-L-Bar fully outfitted. Note that my Irish Mist Whiskey (safely ensconced in the bar in our living room) has since been replaced with a bottle of Glenfiddich Snow Phoenix Whisky. The coffee liqueur will also be replaced at some point with Bourbon or Scotch. Photographed by Eden Hensley Silverstein.

Now, you can buy Portable Bars new, if you're not excited by the idea of hunting for the perfect vintage bar. Kegworks and Picnic Time both make bars.

The Finds: Travel Bar by Kegworks, $69.95, Amazon.com; Deluxe Portable Travel Set, $119.95, Kegworks; Portable Travel Bar by Picnic Time, $129.95, Bed, Bath, & Beyond.

Happy searching!

Ciao Bella!

Eden

 

Credits: All collages created by Eden Hensley Silverstein for A Timeless Affair. Except where noted, all product images taken by Amazon.com, Bed, Bath, & Beyond, Kegworks, or their respective Etsy sellers: Baby Kiki Yaya, Collectique, FaithandHope10, Knockouts Vintage, Pirate Cat's Treasures, and Toadsies.