Weddingbee Blog

We semi-DIYed our wine box for our Love Letter and Wine Box Ceremony. We searched high and low for an affordable box. Remember, we’re cheap. I kept thinking that someone handy and crafty would offer to make a box for us, but it just never happened. A wood box…how hard could it be? Well, it turns out that this box produced more stress for Mr Hot Wings than just about anything else. Believe it. I personally blame it on the fact that he and Papa Hot Wings decided to cut corners instead of doing it the way I had originally asked them to do it. If you’re planning on dong this too, learn from Mr Hot Wings’ mistakes.

The wood box originally belonged to Sister in Law. Someone had given it to her, and she never used it. So, she re-gifted it to us. My one complaint about the box was the lid. The box had a hinged lid and a latch to close it, similar to these below.

source

I had my heart set on having our parents hammer the box shut.

The hinged lid would make that really difficult because the original lid was thick. Therefore, I insisted on making a new lid. Mr Hot Wings and Papa Hot Wings went to Home Depot in search of wood. It was difficult because they could only find large sheets of solid wood that was very expensive. So, they ended up buying a laminate composite shelving board. See below.

I was pretty unhappy when I saw the board. I just didn’t see it looking very pretty to be set “in a prominent place in our home” as we had written in our DIY ceremony. I figured that if I was going to let Mr Hot Wings take care of this box, I had to be okay with the decisions he was making regarding it, so I let it go. He cut it down to size and tried to stain the composite wood to match the color. After staining, he left the lid in the backyard to dry.

He spent a good 12 hours on this lid. The next morning…yup, he forgot to bring the lid inside the day before. My dad came in from his morning stroll to show us the completely warped lid Mr Hot Wings had worked so hard on. The sprinklers came on automatically overnight and got the composite laminate lid wet. Note: You can’t get composite wood wet. It will warp. Mr Hot Wings was disappointed. He and Papa Hot Wings had to go back to Home Depot to find a new lid.

This time, I insisted on solid wood. It is hard to find small pieces of solid wood at Home Depot, but they got lucky and found a small piece laying in the back of a pile. They brought it home, cut it to size, sanded it down, and stained it. Now it looked the way I had envisioned.

Mr Hot Wings found a mini hammer in Papa Hot Wings’ tool box and they drilled little holes in each corner to pre-insert the nails.

Ultimately, it turned out perfectly! My dad likes to joke that I probably let the composite lid sit outside on purpose so that Mr Hot Wings would have to make a new lid. I swear I didn’t do that, but I may have put out some juju vibes for a nicer lid. (wink wink)

*photo by Hanssie Trainor*

Did I mention that Mr Hot Wings forgot to pack the box into the car to bring down to our ceremony site? Yeah, he did. Papa Hot Wings put the box in the car saying, “he worked so hard on that box. It would be so sad if you didn’t use it.” It was a very cute bonding moment between my dad and Mr Hot wings.

So that’s the story of the wine box. Did your fiance have a project that consumed her/him during planning?

*all personal photos unless noted*