DIY Card Basket and Preventing Wedding Gift Theft

Of all the things to stress about when it comes to wedding planning, some things are plain silly. For example, I stressed over what to have guests put their cards in at the reception. Many girls have made these gorgeous, elaborate card boxes out of stacked paper mache boxes. They look nice, but I really did not see them fitting in with my classic, nautical reception. On top of that, the budget savvy part of my brain could not justify spending $30 in supplies for a piece of decor that no one will remember. To go along with that, what would I do with a card box after the wedding? Throw it away? Attempt to sell it? Store it in a closet? I talked to Tom about a card box as well, he agrees with me completely. Again, nothing against the ladies that decided to make card boxes, they just aren't for us.

So if I'm not going to have a card box, what do guests put their cards in? A bird cage? That looks cool, but again, doesn't really fit in with our theme, and what would I do with it after the wedding? Then I visited our reception venue, and the event coordinator gave me a good idea: a basket! This got me thinking, I could get a fishing basket! That would fit perfectly within our nautical theme, and, even better, I could definitely use a basket after the wedding. Problem solved!

The next step was finding the perfect basket. I visited a couple antique shops and found gorgeous antique fishing baskets for $50+, not exactly what I was planning to spend on a basket. I visited several craft stores and found some nice baskets, but nothing that was distinctively nautical. Then I went to the Christmas Tree Shop and found the perfect nautical style basket.

All that was left was decorating the basket to match our wedding colors. I started by wrapping some left over ribbon around the basket, then I added a sign that I made on Microsoft Paint that simply says "Cards" followed by our names and the wedding date, and finally I added a left over shell for an added detail. I attached everything with minimal amounts of hot glue so that it could be easily dismantled after the wedding.

Now back to the why I was so stressed about the card situation to begin with. Wedding gift theft is a rising problem at reception venues across the country. I'm not accusing any of my guests of having sticky fingers, but problems happen when receptions are held in locations that are easily accessible by the public. My reception is being held at a hotel, and while we have our own entrance, it is easily accessible from the main lobby. In fact, any hotel guests that want to use the hotel pool will be walking past the door to my reception. I'm not trying to be paranoid, but common sense warns against leaving cards that commonly contain money out in the open for anyone to grab. For this reason, many wedding sites recommend a card box or some other sort of locking container. My coordinator suggested a basket because it would be placed at the guestbook table at the beginning of the reception when guests are arriving. This way, guests can simply drop their card off in the basket. Once all the guests have arrived, my coordinator will personally place the basket in a secure space, preferably in our honeymoon suite. The gift table will be on the opposite side of the ballroom from the door. This is just another security measure, as would-be wedding crashers would have to walk clear across my reception to get anything. I'm hoping that this is all silly and that I'm worrying about nothing, but at the very least, it's one less thing to have to worry  about on our big day!