As I'm nearing the point in time when I actually need to do something "constructive," I've discovered yet another detail that I can obsess over to prolong the "creative" period. Our guest "book." As you may know, guest books are increasingly not books at all. There are lots of ideas floating around, including:
The ever popular photo-mat-in-frame:
This is a simple enough concept. You simply put a picture of the happy couple (usually an engagement picture) in a mat, and then let guests sign it. Afterwards, you frame it and, voila, you have an extremely large, framed guest book that you'll proudly hang... in your basement. Or, knowing FI, it'll stay leaning up against the wall of his closet for years.
Then, there's the newest wedding "must have" -- the photo booth guest book:
This is actually a neat idea, and one FBIL used for his wedding a few weeks ago. There are several different companies that do this now (kinda like the explosion of chocolate fountain dessert companies a few years ago when it was the "It" thing). Some photo booths digitally record the photos, and the bride and groom get a DVD of all the pictures. Others have a double print out, where the guests keep one copy and put the other in a photo guest book. Still others simply have the one print out, and the guests put them in the guest book and write messages around it.
The pre-photo booth idea was the Polaroid guest book, where someone would stand by the door with a Polaroid and snap pictures of guests as they came in. The picture went into a book, and then guests wrote messages. While cheaper than a photo booth, it's also not as "glamorous" and with Polaroid discontinuing their popular camera, it's not as easy to come by anymore either.
Another up and coming idea is the "wishing tree," where guests not only sign their names but also offer sage wisdom and advice to the newlyweds. However, knowing many of my friends as I do, it'd probably be more like an "opposite" tree -- do the opposite of whatever they say do.
And, finally, akin to the wishing tree, there's the "write on a rock that we'll place in a vase or in our garden" idea. Yes, I swear, it's an idea found on The Knot. Apparently, the guests are supposed to wish the newlyweds well as they place the rock in the vase.
So, as you may have noticed, I'm not particularly thrilled with any of these options. If you have any ideas, I'm all ears. At the moment, the best idea to me seems to be a "coffee table" book of our engagement pictures, and then have people sign it and write messages as they would normally. As with most coffee table books, it'll probably end up covered in dust somewhere and never looked at, but at least we'll have something to show the grandkids.
3 comments:
You're definitely spot on about combining your friends + that wishing tree = dangerous.
What about a friendship quilt? It's not normally a guest book, but it could be used as one. Guests could sign a square of material your colors and then I could have you a quilt made out of them. Then you could hang it or use it. Remember, we still make quilts in the South! I have a quilt hanger or they are sold in antique stores.
I am a huge fan of the rock idea. Its something you can use to add decor to the house thats not just going to end up collecting dust on a shelf or on a coffee table. You could probably find rocks in some of your colors to that you could mix in with the darker stones.
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