by Elena Quintal

Created on: April 20, 2009

The day has arrived - you and your groom have said your "I do's" and are now at the reception. You can breathe a sigh of relief because all your worries are over...or are they? If you've been watching or reading the news, you may have seen or read about a "wedding guest" that stole a gift meant for the bride and groom. As if a bride doesn't have enough to worry about!

You may be surprised to learn that this type of incident is more common than you think. If people are able to get past a retail store's exit with stolen items, what with the security measures that they spend thousands of dollars on, think of how much easier it is at parties and wedding receptions where no one is expecting any theft to occur.

There are ways to prevent wedding gift theft. Here are some of them:

LOCATION OF THE WEDDING GIFTS

The main mistake with the situation that I stated above was setting up the wedding gift table near the reception venue's entrance. With the amount of traffic going in and out those doors (guests, waiters, caterers, etc.), it's hard to see "guests" who are leaving with your gifts. Tell your wedding planner (if you have one) that you would like the gifts set up inside the reception venue, maybe in a corner towards the front of the room. (I've even seen one right smack in the middle of the room where people could see it, and it actually looked pretty!)

ASSIGN SOMEONE

You or your wedding planner can assign someone to watch your gifts for you. If you're lucky enough to have a friend or relative watch them for you, you can show your appreciation when the wedding's over. Or you could give your favorite nephew $20 which I am positive he will appreciate. I assure you, he will guard those gifts with his life!

ASK YOUR GUESTS FOR THE INVITATIONS

It is common in weddings for someone (not you) to ask the guests for their wedding invitations at the reception's entrance. This is to prevent "wedding crashers" from getting past the entrance. Just make sure that you tell your guests to bring the invites if they are going to attend. You can state this in the invitations.

OR, HIRE SOMEONE TO OPEN/CLOSE THE DOORS

Your guests will think that this is a nice, added touch, but in reality, that person is there to check that only invited guests are entering, and that no one is leaving with your gifts!

This is something that you may want to consider when planning your big day. You can even consult your wedding planner about this so that he/she will make sure that everything flows smoothly and you don't end up with missing gifts, or worse, offending your guests.

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