Check Out That Package

With only two weeks left until the wedding, there's been loads of presents arriving on our doorstep almost daily (hence my first-name relationship with our UPS man.  I think he likes me because we live on a 5th-floor walk-up and I always walk down a flight or two to meet him because he's really old and I always worry he won't be able to make it up all the stairs!)

Anyways, trusty UPS man showed up the other day with this box.

Sweetness, I thought.  Wonder what it is?

Could it be a lovely, wooden bowl, perfect for housing salads and Halloween candy?

Nope, it wasn't the salad bowl...

Or maybe it's this pretty blue pan, just waiting for me to bake a yummy apple pie (HA! That, my friends, will probably never happen.)

Another good guess but incorrect again.

Alright, are you ready to see what was actually in this box? Check it...

I kid you not, that entire box housed...wait for it, wait for it...an ice cream scoop!

To put it in perspective, here's a shot taken a step back so you can see how ridiculously big the box was compared to the scoop (it's a normal ice cream scoop here, people, not a jumbo-sized one.  Although, let's be honest, a jumbo ice cream scoop would be pretty freakin' awesome.)

Please don't mis-understand this post, I am in no way knocking the gift because, well, I eat ice cream like it's my mutha-f$#&ng job.  For real. Trying to scoop it out with a spoon is annoying because the spoon always bends backwards and truth be told, I was secretly really really hoping someone would get this for us when I put it on our registry. It also goes perfectly with our ice-cream maker (which we also got.  Yeah, like I said before, I'm a piggie-wiggie about ice cream and everyone knows it! :) )

Plus, the scoop was actually part of a 3-part gift (the pie pan and a kitchen timer were also part of the present) but get this: They came in their own separate package.  Oh, the irony.

I totally get that William Sonoma has to make sure their products arrive in good condition, but seriously, folks over there? The 2-foot box was probably a little bit of overkill but y'all can rest assured that my solid, metal ice cream scoop arrived at my doorstep with nary a scratch.

Anyways, it makes for a hilarious story but my inner-hippie is giving me some guilt pangs over all the packaging and waste that our wedding is creating.  It's not that I haven't tried to keep things green when possible, I have, I really have, I swear! But with all my DIY projects and paper products and favors and the shipping of gifts, there's definitely a significant amount of stuff going in our trash (and recycling bins, when possible!)

And so, in order to somehow assuage this guilt, I've decided that we will be donating a percentage of our gift money to an environmental organization, although I have not figured out which one yet (any suggestions would be welcome.) I know it doesn't equal the amount of waste we've created but every little bit helps and I'll sleep better at night.

Have you received gifts in ridiculous packaging? I know Miss Hot Wings has! And what are you doing to keep your wedding green and low-impact?