On the day of your wedding, there are going to be guests who want to give you cards or envelopes with money in them (yay!). You will want to have a plan in place for what to do with all of these gifts during the reception. The usual answer is to have a special decorative box, basket, or bag to hold all of the cash gifts and keep them safe.
How many envelopes with cash or checks in them you are likely to receive on your wedding day will depend in large part on the customs of your family and community. If you have ever seen the movie "Goodfellas", you may remember the wedding scene where guest after guest (all of them named Peter or Paulie, apparently) handed cards full of cash to the newlyweds. The bride had a fancy white fabric bag designated to hold all of the cash gifts. If you come from a family where cash gifts are common at weddings, you should plan to have an equally large money bag.
Making a fancy bag to hold your gift cards is an easy and fun diy project. Basically, all you need to do is make a large pouch style bag out of a pretty bridal fabric, like a piece of white silk. Use two circles of cloth for strength, and sew them into a round bag with a silk cord drawstring running through the top edge. You can decorate the bag and the ends of the silk cord with any number of things. Silk flowers are lovely, as are pieces of lace, or clusters of beads. Brides who received pearls as their wedding jewelry gifts can stitch a row of seed pearls along the top edge of the bag to coordinate with their other accessories. If your wedding jewelry is more glitzy, crystals also make a nice accent to the bag for the cash gifts; a cluster of crystals near the ends of the drawstring will help prevent the cord from slipping into the bag.
Some couples prefer to have a special box or basket that they place out in the reception venue to receive the card gifts. One advantage of the box over a basket is that it will have a lid, which gives a bit more of a sense of security. There are boxes for sale for this purpose, but really it is incredibly easy to make your own card box. Simply take a sturdy box with a lid in whatever size you need, cut a slit in the top, and cover it to make it attractive. You can use a pretty silver or white wrapping paper (wrap the lid and base of the box separately and then fit them together), perhaps with a wedding motif. Fabric also works well for the box covering. Spray adhesive and hot glue are the easiest way to secure the material to the cardboard box. You can also add other embellishments like lace appliques or even make a decoupage box.
A fancy basket is one of the easiest places to put the gift cards. Simply take a nice white or natural colored wicker basket, tie a fluffy bow on the handle, and voila! You have a gift card basket. The one issue with the basket is that because it is wide open, you really need to have someone watching over it at all times. Depending on your venue, you may also need to designate someone to keep an eye on a closed box, as well. Unless your reception will be held in a location that is totally closed to the public like your home or a private club that is closed to all others during your party, the security of the cash gift box is an important consideration.
The best part about the bag, box, or basket for the cash gifts, of course, is opening all of those envelopes at the end of the evening! This is something that the newlyweds should do in private, of course. If you are leaving immediately for your honeymoon, it is a good idea to have one of your parents take all of the checks and cash to the bank and deposit it for you as soon as possible. Of course, you might want to hold out a little of that money to have fun with on your honeymoon.
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