Weddingbee Blog

So, I was on a mission to make cork escort cards and also incorporate a wine theme loosely into our day. First up, I found some new corks on eBay, on the cheap (200 for $20.00).

Some brides collect their corks from bottles and some get them from restaurants for free, but I knew that I wanted them to be new and all look the same if possible (I am crazy, I know this).

So, I had 200 corks. There is a great thread on the boards about how different brides have gone about constructing their corks. Some recommend using a kitchen knife, some say a razor blade works, and some swear by rough sandpaper. Well I tried all three of these options and I still wasn’t satisfied with the results. What to do? Ask Cheeseburger Dad, of course!

Cheeseburger Dad is an engineering genius.

He has remodeled every room in our family home, built and re-built decks, installed our pool, fixed our cars - well, you get the idea. I knew that all I had to do was ask, and the corks would be ready to go.

His first idea was to kick the sandpaper idea up a notch by using a belt sander. This made a mess and it was hard to keep all of the corks looking uniform (my craziness strikes again!).

So, he had another idea:

Yes, a power saw. He constructed a little vice for the corks to sit nicely in and then proceeded to cut the bottom off of about 195 corks (with every one in the same orientation!). Below you see about half of his progress (yes I really just stood there and just took pictures… he wouldn’t let me use the saw!):

But what about the top of the cork? We needed a cut to put the actual cards into.

First, he tried to freehand the cut with a razor. Of course, they weren’t *perfectly* straight, and I asked if there was a way to make sure they would be every time (I know, I know). Cheeseburger Dad struck again with this little contraption (which Cheeseburger Mom now wants to patent, haha) that makes perfectly straight cuts every time:

The last step? Making the cut a little bigger by running a saw blade through it a few times. This is a time-consuming step, but it will allow us to use some of the great cardstock I have ready to go for our escort cards

The final product? While I haven’t printed any escort cards yet, you can see a mock-up below:

What a beautiful, perfectly straight and reproducible little construction project. Thanks, Dad!

Did you ever make a DIY project way more complicated than it had to be?