Thursday, July 14, 2011

Alternatives to a Wishing Well

We didn't want a typical wishing well for our wedding, but we still needed something that people could put their cards and gifts into.

I tossed up quite a few different ideas of what we could use (things like birdcages -which are also a bit typical, old suitcases, a letterbox, a rustic old crate, a box covered in pretty paper, etc etc) ...in a later post I'll share some of those pics. 


About a week before the wedding I hadn't arranged anything.. and suddenly had no time to trawl through op shops looking for the perfect item. So I ended up using the picnic hamper you see above. It was my mums.. and was actually green on the inside. It also had leather straps which held in plastic cups, plates, cutlery, etc. It was a bit daggy really.

So I set to work with a little more DIY and re-lined it using the same orange gingham that featured on our Jam Jars... and is very similar to our groomsmen's ties.


Step 1 - Cut leather straps off and discard all contents. 
Step 2 - Cut fabric to size
Step 3 - Use hot glue gun to make fabric stick

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I'm pretty sure that when you plonk 'something that looks like it could store things' at the entrance to a wedding reception... people pretty easily work out what it is there for (i.e. putting cards and gifts into). But it was one week before my wedding and I didn't want any room for error.. so I created some little tags to explain. These tags are the same ones that were tied to our invitations. 

Step 1 - Buy Tags
Step 2 - Decide they are too white and need look more rustic
Step 3 - Make a cup of coffee and dip tags into it. 
Step 4 - Once dry, write on tags


Of course i also went into a panic about whether it was ok to put 'cards' or 'gifts' on the hamper.

ME: - "Does it seem greedy? Does it seem like we are expecting people to bring gifts?"
Reality:- "But people will bring gifts"
ME:- I know, but we don't want them to think we expected them!
Reality:- "But we have a registry"
ME:- Yeah but what if someone doesn't bring anything?
Reality:- Well don't put anything on it then. People will work it out.
ME:- "But then people wont know where to put stuff. OK, we shouldnt put 'gifts'.. that's greedy. Let's just put 'cards'.

Pathetic really. Nobody tells you how much you'll worry about irrelevant details in the lead up to your wedding. Our guests probably barely registered this hamper.. nor the tags!

2 comments:

  1. just wanted to say that i too have been agonising over something to put cards in for our wedding and i considered all of the options you mentioned.......my daughter won a hamper (in a picnic hamper) at Easter at school and i suddenly remembered it so thought i wonder if anyone else has done it.....i found your blog!! So thank you now i think i may have found what i am going to use!! I too am just going to put "cards" on it! :) xx

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  2. Excellent! So happy to have helped you make up your mind. A picnic hamper would be really sweet!

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