Jeremy and I have a little collection of wine and champagne corks that we keep in a glass pitcher in our dining room. On special and sometimes not-so-special occasions we save corks and write what we were doing or celebrating on that day.
Our friend Carter told us he had a similar collection the year we got married. We loved the idea so we stole it and have been saving them ever since! At first it felt like pointless hoarding, but now when we look at them they are actually really special to us. Now that we have a few years collected, they represent so many happy, sad and funny times. Friends, dinners, weddings, birthdays, holidays, moving, good news and travels… it's all in there!
Here are a few new and old corks. I love that there is such a variety of big events and special occasions and also small things that we were celebrating at the time, like when I came home from my final business trip of the season this year. There are even a few mixed in there that just say something like "catching up on Homeland". 🙂 It's the little things.
Happy New Years!!! xx. Elsie
Credits// Author and Photography: Elsie Larson
97 Comments
This such a cool keepsake. Love the way it looks in a jar too.
Carina
http://www.carstina.com/
My boyfriend and I do the same thing! I’d never heard of it before…so it’s so weird seeing that other people do the same! We love our little cork memories. Big and small.
Happy New Year! Here’s to making many more memories over bottles of wine!
xoxo Kerrie
If you didn’t include the memory it might be useless hoarding but anything that helps you remember and looks cute is good! I’m stealing it! 🙂
That is such a sweet and practical idea- we love it!
Love from Europe and a single new year’s resolution:
http://lasagnolove.blogspot.de/2014/01/hello-new-year.html
Bambi and Birdy
We do the same and keep them in a glass vase in our kitchen. The first one was from the champagne we drank on honeymoon. X
I love this idea! I always love my corks, and never know what to do with them. Perfect suggestion!
xo, Juliette Laura
http://juliettelaura.blogspot.com
What an awesome idea! What a great way to remember the little things 🙂
Happy New Year!
Best,
Danielle
http://awriterinlove.blogspot.com
We had our wedding guests sign corks that we had been saving since we started dating instead of a guest book at our wedding two years ago. We display them in a vase a lot like this. It’s a nice keepsake!
My fiance and I want to do this. Did you find your guests had a hard time writing on the corks? Did you have to use a special pen so that the ink didn’t bleed? Thanks so much! Cute idea 🙂
Thats really neat, especially making a note about what the occasion was.
So clever and precious to be able to look back like that
This is such an adorable and smart idea! A perfect way to keep up with certain memories as well!
Happy New Years!
We keep a collection of corks too but I have never thought to write on them! Such a great idea!
Very beautiful idea, tanks for the idea.
Ciao
Norma
http://voglioilmondoacolori.blogspot.it
Such an adorable idea! Especially with the personal notes.
Cheers,
Eileen
http://www.yesmissy.com
I never save things like this but it is a cute idea. 🙂
We don’t drink wine, but I love this idea anyway. Special memories.
I’ve seen this in one of my favorite restaurants, but w/o little messages on it. I thought it was cool.
What a lovely idea!
xo, Cheyenne
Such a lovely idea!
http://talisatalksbeauty.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/best-of-beauty-sales.html
what a fun idea! love this
xxoo,
nikki
http://www.dreaminneon.blogspot.com
This is such a cute idea!
xo Jennifer
http://seekingstyleblog.wordpress.com
my sister-in-law saves all of their corks and records the memories on them as well! for christmas, i gave her a letter made for storing corks. it ended up looking really really cute! i can absolutely see you doing something really creative with it. here’s the link if you want to check them out! 🙂
http://www.ltdcommodities.com/For-the-Home/Decorative-Accents/Decorative%2BAccents/Metal-Monogram-Wine-Cork-Holder/prod860114.jmp?navAction=jump&fm=search
i use to do exactly the same, i think it’s a really cute idea too <3
my parents have done the same thing for my family ever since we were born – every birthday, christmas, wedding, graduation! it is such a cool idea!
I love this idea. I may have to ‘steal’ it too. 🙂
So neat and cute!
Love this idea! We collect our wine corks, but I think writing a memory of the moment on them is such a lovely idea! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
http://sometimesgracefully.com
What a superb idea! I was just drinking wine last night for New Years. Perfect!!!!!!
promisesofcoffee.com
This is so clever! I totally want to start doing this!
-Alyssa
http://www.pinchoflyss.blogspot.com
I’ve got so many corks and I wish I had done that!!! So many memories attached to each bottle. I’d love to do that for this year! 🙂
Love this Idea and that fact that you honor the little memories like catching up on TV together !
Brittany fabulouslyfaint.blogspot.com
This is such a great idea. Its lovely you can now look back and reminisce on lots of different occassions!
Charlotte xx
I keep all of our wine corks too – but I’ve never thought about writing on them. Thanks for the tip!!
love this! 2013 was the year i became a wino. 🙂
What an awesome tradition! Just think of how much fun it will be to look through them 50 years from now!
we do the exact same thing 🙂 I’m about to write on our 2013 new year’s eve cork. i’m inspired to share a few of mine. love it! thanks for sharing!
What a cute idea! It’s so small yet romantic!
Wij houden ook al een tijdje die dingen bij maar wat een heerlijk idee om er op te schrijven wanneer je ze dronk… doe ik vanaf nu ook 🙂
That’s such a nice thing to do. My Mom does that, too 🙂
This is a beautiful keepsake idea 🙂 Would be lovely going back to it and re-living all the good memories..
What a great idea!
I do this with my boyfriend as well! We have everything from watching the Olympics to our first picnic. It’s such a great thing to do, especially for us as we’re long distance (for the last five yers) so when I really miss him it’s nice to think about the fun things we find a reason to celebrate when we’re together.
Alessia
Aww, it’s such a sweet thing to do! If I drank, I’d do it 😀
What a cute tradition you started!
Ha, that is really great idea. I didnt do that but now I ll start. xa. And I wish you all the best in 2014. xa
http://www.fashiondenis.com/
This is adorable.. and I like displaying them in a large glass jar. You could even stick a candle in the middle and use it as a centerpiece. Finding ways to keep memories alive isn’t easy, and this one doesn’t even take up much space (which I, as a Professional Organizer, just love!)
My sister does this and I’ve always thought it was really cute. Such a nice way to collect memories 🙂 x
Ahhh my husband and I do the same thing! We have a huge IKEA bowl full of corks. From holidays, parties, birthdays, new years’, our engagement, our honeymoon – so many of them. It’s so silly, but it’s so many memories and I’m glad we’re not the only ones who hoard corks 😉
Here’s a post I wrote ages ago just for them {not intentionally trying to spam your comments} http://www.hydrangeagirl.com/2012/01/happy-2012.html – it’s a very old post, so please excuse the shoddy photography.
xx A
Hello Elsie,
this is a really nice idea. As I am always looking for cute ideas to collect common memories with my boyfriend I think this is one we both could like. I will tell him about this saving idea and hope he likes it as much as I do.
Lovely regards from Germany <3
Julia
I have the worst memory; that’s why I love photography so much. This is another great way to preserve those precious memories.
My husband and I do this! =) we have from our engagement to our wedding day and anniversaries.
I’ve been doing this for years! It’s such a neat little collection!
This is a wonderful idea, I’ve only just developed a liking for wine. I think this is something I will definitely do!
Roshni’s Journey
I love this idea. Would be nice to go back and read them 🙂
This is such a cute idea! It makes me want to drink more champagne. haha.
xoxo
Taylor
http://www.welcomehometaylor.com
This is such an adorable tradition! I love how it’s decorative, but also offers a was of archiving memories.
I like this. My sister keeps a jar with corks, but it’s not a keepsake type of thing. I love the idea of being able to keep memories although I battle with how much stuff to keep and toss. Nice idea.
-marie
fashionableninja.com
I LOVE this idea! We save corks too but I never thought of writing what we were doing that day! Definitely going to start this.
I do this too!! Love it!
My husband and I have been doing this for a while now. I usually ONLY mark special occasion bottles (Anniversaries, birthdays, holidays). Our collection has become huge. I often have to dump out the vase that holds the corks. What can I say, we like wine. I hope to eventually make the non-marked ones into something fun, a cork board maybe? And then save the rest since they are marked with special occasions. We also have to find a craft project for our bottle caps we’ve been saving from beers for what seems like forever. Table top or bar maybe? Not sure.
I love saving my wine corks and making a hanging out of it to accentuate the height of my ceilings. For the holidays, I use it as a Christmas tree garland.
http://liveitinerantly.com/blog/2013/12/6/travel-diy-cork-craft
I started doing this several years ago and it’s incredible the memories that you can save this way! The first corks were from the last night my family spent at my parent’s house, where we all grew up, before they moved out to the east coast. It was such a special night and I am so thankful to have a little bit of that night forever. Since then my husband and I have corks from our engagement, wedding, honeymoon, the night we adopted our dog, etc. It’s such a great idea and can make for unique centerpieces!
Oh man, I’ve been keeping wine corks for a couple years now, but I never thought of writing on them!!! Now I wish I had been doing that, they would be just that much more special. I’m going to start doing that from now on.
http://howtomakehome.blogspot.com
This is such an awesome idea! Thanks so much for sharing … going to do this in 2014!
We’ve been collecting ours too. We also collect beer bottle caps. We’re planning an art project of some kind but we just don’t know what yet. Needless to say it’s a fun, albeit slow, way to collect craft supplies.
Wow, that ist very special. I like the “memoring of the small things”- effect.
How funny – I have actually been doing this for about five years now! I keep them in pretty glass apothecary containers in our living room, and I love to look through them from time to time. Some of them have inside jokes on them that no longer make sense, but they still make me laugh. Others have amazing little drawings on them done by our friends. Each one helps me to remember a moment that I may not have remembered otherwise – it’s a really fun tradition!
This idea is the cutest!! I do an ornament tradition: Every vacation/weekend trip my husband and I have taken together (honeymoon included!) I buy a christmas ornament representing the location. If it doesn’t state year and location I write it on the back with a sharpie. We have quite a few in 5 years! I wrote a blog post about it a few weeks ago. 🙂
We save corks, but they aren’t out on display right now. What we also do is save the holiday champagne wire cages and hang them on the Christmas tree. We don’t write on them, but some I can remember what the occasion was, whether it be Christmas, New Year, or birthday. It’s fun to start thinking about the celebrations to come when decorating the tree.
My husband and I do the same thing! We’re actually in the market for a larger vase!
HNY!!!
xx,
Christine
http://www.followtherules.typepad.com
such a cute idea! I love the idea of drinking some wine at home, I may try to do this habit more this year!
Ok, I HAVE to try this idea next time I open up a bottle of wine! It’s the only alcoholic beverage I tend to have, and there’s just something about it that tends to bring people together, don’t you think?
Hope you’re starting the New Year on a wonderful note!
xo
Nat
http://nataliemint.com
love this idea – never to late to start a tradition!
My husband has been aimlessly saving corks since we got married. This gives me a great idea for using them! Thanks!!
This is such a GREAT idea!! Cannot wait to do this in 2014 with my boyfriend!
Holly
http://www.invisiblecrowne.blogspot.com
Definitely stealing this idea! Just need to find the perfect jar 🙂
http://alittlebitwise.blogspot.com
I love this!
http://www.destinationfelicity.com
This is great fun, we used to do that a long time ago, we had a great collection then we turned it into decoration for our restaurant It looked really fabulous.
i do this too! i keep them all in an old letterpress tray. it really is the best having that small memento from the past. xoxo.
I literally have 100’s of corks. How fun to have a use for a few. Thank you for another great idea!
I do this too! I’ve collected corks ever since I moved out of my parents house at the age of 19, and now I’m 26. Needless to say my corks take up quite a bit of room at this point (I actually bought a new glass cylinder over Christmas!) but they look so decorative, and I really cherish all the memories.
never too late to introduce a little tradition . . . lovely idea
Awesome idea! I love it!
I love this idea! Such a sweet way to collect memories!
Well, I do the exact same thing. Started 2 years ago when I moved in my first own house 🙂 Nice to see other people do it too. We all had a great idea! 😉
Lovely idea! Unfortunately I don’t rink much so corks isn’t going to work for me so I’m going to have to find another way to do something similar…
Erin // http://www.erinoxnam.com
Love this idea
Cute idea
Cute idea
Cute
I do the same. I started it up when I got together with my boyfriend about seven and a half years ago – he’s now my husband! I don’t know why I started with him and not with any other boyfriend – I guess I always knew that he would end up my husband. So I have all our valentines, anniversaries, birthday’s and other special occasions and milestones that we’ve hit throughout the last few years together.
I’ve got them in a couple of old school, style bon-bon jars in the kitchen, but I am wondering what to do with them in the long term – I’m not sure it’s going to be practical to have hundreds of cork filled jars when I’m a little old lady (although that would be quite cool!). But I’d never be able to chop them up or coat/paint them so I guess a glass jar will just have to do for now!
It’s great to see so many other people do this too!
Victoria, x shabby-chic-home.com
such a lovely idea! love it!
love, eve
We saved all of our corks for 3 years straight, but not all of them were special and we didn’t make notes. We just tied a ribbon from our wedding around our wedding day cork. I like the idea of notes but after a long time the corks (in a giant fishbowl, 200 of them) started to get on my nerves so I put our wedding one up and put the rest on craigslist for free. 🙂
i have one too!!! been collecting them since 2005! have written about it in here (it’s in portuguese though…) http://miblogito.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/52-objetos-semana-17.html
We do this too! We started with the first bottle of bubbly that we popped when we bought our first home! We’ve got quite a collection now! Like you, I love all the memories – I think I’ll have to hunt out a beautiful vase to store them in and make a real feature of them!
Thanks for the inspiration!
Laura xox
http://www.madepeachy.com
I really love this idea! Reminds me of playing Jenga at my favorite dive bar where everyone writes little messages on the blocks… though, I’m sure yours are far less profane.