Wedding Blog
This past weekend, my FILs attended a wedding at a hotel here in Austin. They had a wonderful time, but we were appalled, as were they, when they proceeded to retell us the story of the card box.
Apparently the card basket was located outside of the reception area, in the foyer. There was a security guard on duty and the couple had also hired a wedding coordinator. At some point during the reception (they think it was during the cake cutting) the ENTIRE card box and all its contents was stolen.
After realizing this had happened, guests immediately started calling retailers from which they had purchased gift cards, but unfortunately, the thief(ves) beat them to the punch. By the time the calls were placed, the retail stores had already been visited by the thieves and the gift cards were depleted.
Now I’ve heard of people taking items from weddings like the bathroom basket, the centerpieces, an extra piece of cake…. but the couple’s gifts? It’s not only heartbreaking for the newlyweds to deal with that, but also for the guests who brought them the gifts. It really makes you think twice about hiring people who are going to be around you and your loved ones at such an important event in your lives.
Although I feel like our vendors and invitees are beyond trustworthy, we are now thinking of moving our gift table into the reception area after it is opened/during the dinner to prevent any “disappearances”. I don’t think our venue is as threatened by unwanted visitors compared to a hotel where people are coming and going, but I guess you can never be to sure.
Are you doing anything to protect your valuables on your important day?
**On a side note, I find it funny that there will be two loss prevention managers at our wedding (attending as guests) and one former loss prevention employee (Mr. Beagle!!), so I don’t think we will have a problem ;)… although, at the wedding my in-laws attended, there were several lawyers at the reception, one being the bride. :O
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omg…. that poor couple! I can’t believe that some people are so horrible! Unbelievable!
My fiance and I have rented the entire mansion where our ceremony and reception will take place for the entire weekend. The bridal suite is upstairs, and should we receive any gifts that night, we’re just going to take them up and lock them away. I realize it’s a bit paranoid, but I’m not even willing to take the chance on having a card box. I know my friends won’t steal from me, but I don’t want to risk having to interrogate the people who work there should something vanish.
how horrible! like you said, that is just heartbreaking! hmm maybe we all need to rethink our card/gift table strategies.
This is compounded in an Asian wedding where it is customary to gift cash gifts. I have heard of weddings where although there were securities in place and the transporting of the gift box immediately after the gifts are collected, people who were transporting the box was actually beaten during the transport! It’s crazy!
Thankfully we didn’t see this as a potential issue (and it wasn’t) since we had our bed & breakfast for our group for the entire weekend. However, I have a friend planning a hotel ballroom reception and her wedding coordinator plans to empty their cardbox and take them to their locked bridal suite after everyone has moved into the reception area. They’ll leave wrapped gifts but remove all cards…and after reading this post I think that might be a wise idea!
The card box at my brother’s wedding was rifled through this summer, all cards opened and any cash was taken. Luckily, most cards contained checks and no other gifts were stolen. Their reception was held under a tent at an inn outside and the theft occurred after the “older folk” had gone back to their rooms (all the rooms were booked by people at the wedding) and the “young folk” had continued the party on the beach. My brother and his wife were very lucky in only having a few gifts stolen, but please be sure that gift security is something that you think of during wedding planning!!
That is so awful!!! 
Our card box was protected in our reception location by our DOC, and they took the card box and all of our gifts to our house after our first dance. Honestly though, before the box left the building I think it would have been easy for someone to swipe it! So scary.
That is so horrible. Sometimes I feel like I am being paranoid the way I have gifts guarded at a wedding, but after reading this it reminds me that it’s better to be safe than sorry.
One of my friend’s had her bouquet stolen the night of the wedding!
Eeeek almighty! That solves it, I’m moving our gift table into the reception!
ugh i’m so sorry to hear that happened to that couple i wonder if the hotel videos came up with anything suspicious.
our venue has a walk in safe so as soon as all the guests have delivered their cards/gifts, my FI will accompany our site coordinator to the safe. only brides and grooms are allowed in the safe- not even members of the bridal party or parents!
that just royally irks me to the core! my wedding is on an island in the middle of the ocean so if someone wants to try something like that they will not have far to go unless they take a row boat from the camp at the same time… but still wont be getting far. so i guess that is my solution to this problem, and at the wedding its direct family and friends no one else. might i add that my location is also a great place to feed you to the fishies!
It’s horrible that this is happening. The hotel our reception is at does have a nice layout. We are in the basement floor so there will not be any regular guests who will be near our event unless they get lost. Our catering manager has already told us that he will be leaving us with the key, and when right while dinner is being served, the FH is to take the key and unlock the box & either take it to our room or if he is comfortable, they will place it in the vault behind the desk.
I worry about this. My reception venue has a large deck (where we are having a tent) which extends onto the beach. While it won’t be mid summer so tourists should be few, I feel like it will be so easy for anyone to wander in via the deck. I was thinking if the card box is large and obnoxious, no one will be able to walk off with it but then you write about the whole box being stolen and a PP mentioned someone going through the box. Maybe we need to have a plan to move the cards somewhere but it is not a hotel so we don’t have a room close by.
I can’t believe people do this. SO horrible. Plus I feel like you have to protect your stuff, but don’t want to act like you don’t trust the people around you, either. Yuck!
@ Miss Bliss: that is just bizarre! What is someone going to do with a stolen bridal bouquet!?
I was recently the MOH in my sister’s wedding. Immediately after the cocktail hour, I emptied the card box contents into my purse, which was kept at the head table with me the whole night. Most of the gifts had been given at that point, but I put the cardbox back out just in case. This was a really great solution because my purse was under the head table, and not many people knew it was there. I’ve heard of horror stories like this happening and can’t imagine! How terrible for the couple
that is so horrible. i will definitely have to tell my friend about this and see what we would need to do even though everyone that will be at the wedding will be family or close friends.
Wow, that’s terrible. Our event coordinator at the venue actually suggested a location for the gift table that took this into account. We were going to put it closer to the door, but he suggested that we place the table on an interior wall, making it harder to swipe anything. Our venue was a public place with a lot of people around, so I’m glad we did it.
This happened at my best friends wedding…because some guests had saved their gift card receipt the couple was able to file a police report and Target worked with the police to locate when the card was used and then went back to the cameras to view who was using the card. They found her, come to find out it was an employee at her venue…CRAZY
That makes me angry. So horrible to happen to anyone but especially at a wedding!
as a wannabee wedding planner, i asked my mom about her experience with this. she told me that all the card type gifts (cash, checks, etc) went to her father who kept them in his jacket pocket. my grandfather then gave all the cash to my dad so they had some instant spending money for their honeymoon (they left the next morning). her point was that she “wasn’t stupid” and didn’t leave cards laying around.
We will be emptying it as soon as we feel all guests have arrived then putting it back out on the table. Its terrible to think anyone would touch it but rather be safe than sorry.
Hmm… thanks for the post. It’s really something to think about. While you want to assume your family and friends would never steal from you, you also never know what the staff is up to as well.
SAD! Today was my MOH’s wedding and they just made sure someone moved the card box to somewhere safe once the ceremony/reception started and you just had to talk to someone if you wanted to turn a card in later
We had someone assigned to take the cardbox off the gift table as soon as everyone was inside. We didn’t want to risk this happening!
It happens more than you think!!!!
Make sure that right after the cocktail hour that someone takes the card box and locks it somewhere safe (caterer’s office, bridal suite, etc).
That is soooo Horrible. I feel so bad for the couple. We had our gift table set up right near our sweetheart table. We could see it at all times
@LindseyMarie52: An employee at the venue? Really? That’s horrible! At least they caught her.
I’m glad you posted this because this wouldn’t have occurred to me at all. I’ll have to think about this now.
My fiance is Vietnamese. It is a custom to give only cash or checks at weddings with amounts of $100 and up. I thought they were paranoid when telling me about what has to be done to protect envelopes, but I do believe them. I’ve heard stories of people being followed and being robbed at home. Groups staking out weddings waiting for the card box to come out and then beating the person to take the box. One family hired security guards to protect the home where the envelopes would eventually be taken, so they could keep the house safe before and after. How does this effect me? Well, we are having an outdoor wedding and I wanted a bird cage to hold envelopes. My fiance had to tell me it wasn’t a good idea since guests could actually see how many envelopes are in there. Now we’ll just have a card box and have it emptied out every so often by my dad.
Oh my goodness what an awful thing. Thank you so much for posting this to give us all a warning. In my case, a much needed one, I hadn’t even thought about this kind of thing in relation to my wedding. I am sending prayers and hugs to those who experienced this horrible thing, but at the same time I am thinking about what I will do to protect our cards.
Oh my god, that is just horrible! I’m so sorry for them
oh my, that’s absolutely awful! I can’t believe how low some people stoop …
I’ve heard of it happening — though I sincerely hope that they did NOT tip that security guard! Yeesh!
What a horrible thing to have happen at your wedding.
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i always thought that was horrible! i’ve been hearing stories of this kind of theft popping up. it wasn’t too long ago that a couple were caught with the card box!
i plan on keeping the cardbox in the same area as the reception so hopefully that lowers the risk of it walking away
That is awful! Sadly, though, I can totally believe it. Probably the last thing the bride is thinking about is where are my cards and gifts, and people count on that. I only say this, since my wallet was stolen on my wedding day just a few weeks ago (although it was from on hotel, we think, not our reception place). I would just like to think karma will do the evil doers in someday. What a wedding day bummer!
That’s so sad. We had the gift table set up only through dinner. While we were cutting the cake and doing our first dance, the wedding coordinator moved everything to our locked vehicle (probably not the best place in a busy parking lot, but it was perfect for our location).
That’s terrible. Mr. FF and I were just talking about this over the weekend. We’re having our card box/gift table on the inside of our reception room so that we can alleviate any type of issues like this.
The table for the cards and the boxes were right behind us in the reception room. Our venue was also a restaurant and hotel, so there was no way I would have left stuff out in the foyer.
I have, unfortunately, heard of this happening before. Our reception location had a locked closet that they could put it in, but I asked my personal attendant to take our card box to my parents vehicle once everyone was seated. Our card box was right by the entrance. I wasn’t worried about randoms walking in since we were on the outskirts of town, but you can’t trust everyone…unfortunately. Any precaution you think you need to take, I definitely would!
This is so terrible! It’s sad that brides have to worry about these things!
We’re putting the gift table behind our table, in between the bridal party tables, and since it will be on a stage at the opposite end of the doorway, I’m hoping someone would see anyone trying to take our cardbox. I can’t believe the balls on some people, i would seriously go buck wild on someone for doing that!!!
Wow, that is terrible! Having my DOC move the card box to a safe spot is getting added to my list!
One trick that my wedding coordinator told us about was to place some large bells inside the box, that way, when the box is moved it will make a lot of noise! Someone would overhear the bells and then know that something was up. Another idea she mentioned was to place weights in the box, that can be removed before the card box is taken away. Again, if someone does not expect this, they would be in for a big surprise, and would not be easily able to remove the card box without being noticed. Sounds horrible to have to take these measures, but it’s unfortunately become the world we live it! Good luck, and try not to stress about it!!
well our venue is isolated and about 90% of our guest list will be cops, so anyone stupid enough to attempt to steal anything from the reception will probably not make it to the parking lot…. 
sorry to hear about what happened - hopefully the fate of karma will catch up to them!!!
oh and a thought - maybe have a wishing well and replace the little bucket with a big huge loud bell LOL
Something similar actually happened to us at our wedding a few weeks ago. After opening our gifts the next day we realized that about 13 or so people were unaccounted for — and it’s okay if someone choose not to give a gift, but some of those people handed us cards that we ourselves put in the birdcage. This lead to a really awkward round of calls and emails to the giftless people to find out if the did indeed put a card in the birdcage. As it turns out, most had given cards and some were checks but there were also a few with cash and gift cards. We’re still in the process of working this out with the venue and our guests. We had talked about having the cards moved to a safe, but were told that the venue had never had a problem.
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Mrs. Beagle, Austin
Age and Occupation: 26, Electrical Engineer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Finance
Engagement Date: July 12, 2008
Wedding Date: October 2009
Venue: Church Ceremony/Reception at The Waterford House
About Me: I am a true, but rare, Austinite---I was born, raised, and continue to live in this great city! Although
I am an engineer by day, I feed my inner creative side through crafting, sewing, and obsessing over Martha Stewart. I love coffee, my mister, NPR, and exploring all the nooks and crannies of Austin.
I can't wait to share my adventures in DIY and wedding planning with all of you!
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