Love Letters and Vino

This idea grabbed my attention as soon as I came across it. I mean, it deals with wine...I love wine...this project equals winner! What I am talking about is a wine box ceremony.

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The idea is that before the wedding you take the time to write your partner a letter, expressing your thoughts about the good qualities that you found in them, the reasons you fell in love with them, and your hopes and dreams for the future. You then place them in sealed envelopes. You pick out your favorite wine (preferably something that can last over the years), and two wine glasses to include in your box.

The Officiant will usually be the one to place the items in the box and then will seal it shut themselves, or with the help of you family. You can do it by lock and key or nails are the most preferred methods. Then you open it on a key Anniversary, like your 5th, 10th, 15th...really whenever you want. Couples also open them early if they are going through a particular rough time in their marriage, and it is used as a sort of saving grace.

Although I love the idea of opening letters down the road, we already have our unity candle and are happy using just that.

Then I thought, why not do this ourselves, in our home. And we could pick an Anniversary to open it on. We don't need a priest to do this. So that was my game plan. Lucky for me, Michael's was having a 50% off sale on the box I had been eyeballing for a while....are you seeing the trend with Michael's here? It could also be that it is less than a mile from my work and I drive by it to go home, but I digress.

Here is the lovely that I picked up for $12!

This will definitely fit a bottle of wine, two glasses, and letters. I plan on getting some styrofoam and satin to make a nice inside. The box has two latches and two snaps, I think that will be sufficient enough, we don't need anything fancy. And we can keep it somewhere out of the way, but in sight in the house. 

I was completely sold on the idea, until I came across another use for it...damn me and constantly looking at wedding websites! We would still be able to use the idea of opening it on an Anniversary, but this would involve more people. In particular, all the people that come to our rehearsal. We would give each guest a numbered card (1-50?, or some variation of that), they write a short letter to us on the card and seal it in an envelope. The envelopes go in the box, then on the Anniversary corresponding with the number you open the card and read it while drinking some awesome wine. 

Sold! What I am thinking, is handing out numbers 1-9, then every 5 years, so 15, 20, 25, 30, and on and on. We would still write each other letters, and open them on our 10 year Anniversary! Then of course every Anniversary you open it and drink the bottle of wine you buy another one to put in the box for next time. 

It would be a great way to read letters from our family and love ones over the years!

Is anyone else incorporating a wine box? Are you doing something different for your ceremony?