I would dremel out a spot for a nice poker stick. Maybe get fancy with it, since it’s for a wedding. I’d keep the outside nice and polished and pretty, but keep the inside sanded, burned, sanded, burned, ect until you got a nice natural surface. It would be a cool touch, and no worries of having issues to scrape up epoxy.
Addit: would it be too overboard to line the inside with leather?