Money Box

The usual Vietnamese wedding custom has the bride and groom visit all the guest tables and collect gift money.  Of course, now friends usually make the happy couple do weird stunts and/or play games in order to earn their gift money.  While I think that is great (and I am guilty of making other wedded couples play embarrassing games on multiple occasions), my parents specifically didn't want Mat and I to collect money while we visit the guest tables.  My cousins have done the same at their weddings and so I guess my parents want to follow suit.  They say that it feels like we're "beggars" for money at our own wedding.  I suppose they're right and I want to keep them happy.  So in order to try to encourage guests not to save their gift money throughout the reception until we visit their table, there will be a card/money box for all the gifts to be held in.

I've seen DIY cardboxes on Etsy go for ridiculous prices of $50 up to $100 even.  Are you kidding me?  It's freaking shoeboxes with fabric wrapped around it and a slot cut into it!

So I attempted to make one myself.  I first hunted for boxes.  I ended up only needing to actually buy one box.  The other boxes I had was a square shoebox and then some old Cognac giftbox thingy that my friend My-Ann had used to gift me something back in high school (and I've always kept it for some reason!).  Then I hunted for fabric.  I didn't trek out to DTLA for the fabric district... I know fabric could've been tons cheaper there, but it wasn't worth the drive for this little project.  I found pretty cheap fabric at $3/yard at M&L fabric in Anaheim.  My only thing with it is that it's not purple.  It's more of a dark pink.  But oh well.  I figured I will try to offset it with enough purple decor around it that the pink from the cardbox will happily complement all the purple.

Anyway... here's the fabric:

My reason for picking this fabric was that it's two-toned!  I don't have to buy two different fabrics.  I can just flip it over!

Equipped with a box cutter knife, rulers, hot glue gun, and spray adhesive, I got to work.  I started out with the idea of doing 2 stacked boxes.  Then I realized this wasn't going to cut it for a 300-person wedding.  I need a bigger box!

After much more cutting and gluing... and actually even re-covering boxes twice (because it was ruined or dad was trying to help and cut through the fabric in wrong places... I can't believe 1 yard of fabric was enough for everything), I finally finished the card box!

Cost to make this? About $10!  Time spent making this -- about 2 weeks (spent a lot of time perfecting little details, hence redoing the fabric cover multiple times)
- fabric $3
- box (top) $2
- flowers $1
- spray glue $4

Saved?  At least $40.