Card Box - Should I be worried??

I was thinking about an open card box, because I have a box that would be perfect. But enough people posted on here about guests' dates you don't know, serving staff, etc. to get me worried. I think the card box usually gets left out through the reception and collected with the other gifts at the end of the night. So that is a long time to have cards sitting out in the open. I was scared away and will be making a closed card box.

I don't have a recommendation, it's just up to you if you want to risk it.

From the stories I've heard, the thief is usually a guest at the wedding-- not a passerby or member of the staff.

That's not to say someone WILL steal from it, but that if there is someone who wants to (could even be an invited person's date who you've never met!), you are making it very easy for them.

We really wanted to do a bird house card box, but couldn't find anything that would be secured . So, in the end we opted for this beautiful wine box, which could have the top nailed down so that no one could reach in and pull anything out. I'm suggesting it to you, since I think it would also fit really well with your theme. We had a great experience with the seller, it came super quick, and is just absolutely beautiful:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/189258855/large-personalized-wedding-envelope-gift?ref=listing-shop-header-3

FH's cousin had about 8 cards stolen from her open basket of cards...so mine will be fully secured and large enough that someone would look like a total ass walking out of my venue with it and people would stop him.

A trick I've heard recently is to attach small bells to your card box. I'm in the process of making our card box (it's actually drying in the living room now) and bought small bells from Michaels. I'll glue them to the top tier of the card box. They aren't loud but I hope it will get someone's attention if I have a thief wanna-be.

I really would rethink the open cardbox. We had one that my H and my daughter were the only two that knew how to get into it. And it was a big bulky castle so someone would have looked really stupid trying to carry it out.

Good idea @MrsG2B

I worked a wedding last weekend and they had one of those paper mailbox card boxes. So the bride had someone " in the area " to watch on the box and then we would empty it out every so often and pack the cards away in the locked bridal suite.

However, with an open one, someone can just walk by and swipe.

Our venue told us to secure our cardbox and not place it too close to the exits. She said shes seen some really large thefts and now always advises "her girls"(what she calls her brides) to lock that thing up.

Thank you for all of the suggestions everyone!

@Barbara - Thank you for the link! That looks super cute and it does go with our theme!! It might be a little on the pricier range for us though, but that gave me some more ideas for a card box .

Keep the suggestions coming!!

Thanks ladies! I will definitely use these ideas

Guess what? Just got the perfect carbox arrangement I think . I was looking around for wine barrels for sale/rent for a while, and not many places had them. I just went on Kijiji and found this one place that rents wine barrels. What the lady is going to do for me is have the one end of the wine barrel with the lid put upside down (so the lid is on the bottom) and then the other side (top side) will be open and she'll put a thin piece of wood to fit the top and then cut a slit there for the cards to drop into . I'm also going to have a mini chalkboard sitting on the wine barrel right by the slight and it'll say something like "Cards" and then have an arrow pointing down to where the slit is. I think we'll still keep the suitcase thing so that at the very end of the night, we can collect all of the cards from the wine barrel and put them in the suitcase for when we leave (because of course, how would we be able to bring the large wine barrel full of cards back with us).

I am using a "craft suitcase" (idk what to call it but I got it from Michael's.) I'm thinking about locking it shut and putting a slit in the top.

@Kimberly - That's exactly what my suitcase is (it's like a craft suitcase and I got it from Michael's). That's a good idea what you're doing. I think I'm going to use that wine barrel idea I posted just above your post.

I used a suitcase. You should have you coordinator watch for it or a designated friend or family to watch. My coordinator counted all the cards put them in an envelope and sent it to my wedding suite. Nothing was lost or stolen, Have faith in your family and friends.

Since you are doing your ceremony at a winery why not do a wine crate and just nail a piece of flat wood to the open side. It would be secure and fit in your theme

Walking away with a huge bird cage would look pretty shady so i recommend that. Im doing a medium-large size birdcage type deal but it looks like a present box. Its wire and you just drop the card through so no one can take it out unless you have the key. Or shake it awkwardly which would be super shady as well and less likely to happen.

We ended up with an open one - a wooden wine box I grabbed in Verona, Italy. We put the box away from the entrance and all was good.

@Merenda - That looks beautiful! Glad that everything went smoothly .

@Kaesey - Yes, that's exactly what we're doing now. If you see my post above from May 22nd, I describe that that's exactly what we're doing now because it truly does go with our theme and everything .

We had a wooden card box that had a slit at the top, and a place for a lock when it was closed. We ended up going to Wal Mart and buying some of those luggage locks. We just put a luggage lock on the lock area of the box at the reception. I don't think we had any problems.

The main problem was I think we may have confused some people into thinking they had to detach their card from their actual package and place that in the box while leaving their gift box itself without a name of who it was from.

I'm making a 5 tier card box tower.. it will be displayed near our sweetheart table with the memory table.. none is gonna walk out with that thing. its 3 ft tall. like this but 5 boxes high

Very nice! Great ideas people!