I Know Why the Caged Birds Swing

Since no clever tea inspired idea came to mind as our card collection device, we turned to the tried and true route of birdcages. They are not only classy and decorative, but for us they come with extra incentives. FFIL happens to have two golden antique birdcages, one of which housed a pet bird in the mister's home when he was a child. This translates to the following bonuses: 1. no purchase necessary (free and green), 2. color coordinating, 3. vintage coolness, and 4. added personal history.Why two? Why not?! The quaint one's like our home, the big one's our future rental. Ha! Anyway, I'm thinking the small one will hold red envelopes, and the big one can hold cards. To cover the battered trays on the bottom, they are lined with fabric and red beans. I bought the red birds from Michael's on sale around the holidays for dirt cheap (<$1 for both). Since the swing is quite high, I hung the ribbon and tag below to create more of a visual balance (monogram front, 'gratitude' back):The tag also serve an additional purpose (yeah... can you tell wedding planning has driven someone a smudge coo-coo?):

I'm also considering propping the door open for this small cage, since the birds are suppose to represent us and I'm claustrophobic...

And these below are returned RSVP envelopes. Many of them were cut out to make various tags in wedding projects, including the one above.

Cheap Tip #63: Before tossing any wedding excess, think about how else you can utilize them in other ways. Often times they already match in color, style, or theme and can be surprisingly useful if you think outside the box!

Side Note: I was baffled that the mister (and most of his family, a well read group, who were visiting over the weekend) had no idea about the post title reference. Where I'm from, this is common knowledge. Is it just a California thing? Or a hood thing??