Ice chest

Hey I work for a catering company and wedding venue and honestly ice tons are the way to go, they’re super cute and you can fit a ton of water bottles in them! And all you do is throw another bag of ice on top when it starts to melt, which your caterers can be in charge of. It is super cute and classy and the water will stay cold longer than you think.

FH recently went to a wedding with beer donkeys 😂😂 surely water donkeys would work too lol!!

But to actually answer your question, the galvanized tubs are like $5 at Walmart and really cute...that’s what we are using. They have all different shapes and sizes

If you don't have coolers/ice chests yourselves, can you ask family & friends if they have any you could borrow? While they may not be super attractive, I agree if it's really hot, I'd much rather have cold water from a not-cute cooler than not cold water from something nicer looking. Most of our friends and neighbors own at least a couple coolers, so it might be worth asking around. (Ice in any open and/or non-insulated container isn't going to last long in hot temps.) It will also help if you can possibly pre-chill the water bottles in an extra refrigerator and if you can make or buy larger ice blocks, rather than use cubes which will melt much faster. If you have access to a large freezer, you can make your own using clean milk cartons or large tupperware. Good luck!

My fiancé and his father are handy and made their own out of wood then insulated it with styrofoam. I think in total it cost less than $50 in materials. We use it for every family function and have lent it out to several weddings! It looks kind of like this but it has a stand and is surrounded by wood. It does leak slowly though so make sure it’s not somewhere that water would be a problem!

View Quoted Comment That’s a different story lol 😂

Get one of those inexpensive non insulated metal tubs w/Ice so you aren’t stuck with a thing afterwards- the type you find at HomeGoods or BigLots, IKEA, Walmart. Christmas Tree Shop/ whatever. For a few hours getter great and look nice.


did this for our engagement party and it was sooo hot. Kept water perfectly chilly!

Metal garbage cans are about $20 and will hold a lot. You can also get large plastic beverage tubs in bright colors and dump ice in them. They’re 2 for $8 at Christmas Tree Shop.

Galvanized tubs would look good—caterer will just need to continue to add ice. You could also ask the caterer if they have something

View Quoted Comment

I built on of the wooden ones from an old igloo cooler last year, it works amazingly!

How good are you are building things? You can very easily make a frame/box for an igloo cooler using 2x4's, plywood, ceder planks, 1 set of metal hinges, a handle, wood stain, and sandpaper. All you have to do is detach the lid from the body of the cooler, remove cooler handles, build a frame with the 2x4's, fill in the sides with the cedar planks, build a lid, sand, stain, add the hard ware. It is an easy and cost effective way to make igloo coolers look very nice. However, if you dont have building experience, or dont have the tools already, this project will quickly cost you more than it would cost to buy a similar product.