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After months of pondering the issue, I’ve settled on my guestbook choice: a wish tree!!! Yes, Martha has reeled me into her venomous web. I felt that this was the perfect solution for a decorative display and fun well wishes from our guests. But how were we actually going to create this “tree” and what was it going to look like? I handed this task off to Papa Lemon by showing him pictures of what I was looking for and he swiftly recommended we use manzanita branches.
Good thing Grandma Lemon has manzanita in her front yard, and my parents were driving up for a visit the very next weekend. Here’s the tree in full bloom:
And here are the two branches Papa Lemon brought back home (I’m so glad the birdbath and courtyard wall could hold them up!):
So, yay for the branches…but how are we going to keep them standing up? These ones have very little room on the bottom to secure them in any sort of vase…so the current thinking is to place them in some sort of shallow (but wide) concrete mold and really keep them standing straight. I’m thinking we could just drape some fabric around the base of the “tree” to hide the mold and we’ll be good to go!
And last, but not least, the tree somehow has to fit in this corner and on a table like this…so we’ve got to take some corner-to-corner measurements to make sure everything fits nicely!
I think this is setting a new bar on the lengths I’ll go to DIY…and yet it keeps going…oh boy! 
Manzanita has a special place in my family too! My grandfather planted a tree in the front yard when he and my grandmother were first married. They no longer live in the same house, but the tree is still there on the grounds of the Kauai Community College and we go to visit it once a year.
You might be able to take a piece of plywood and put a screw up through the bottom into the branch. Like the tree on Charlie Brown Christmas, only less pathetic.
How about a tall glass cylinder vase that is wide? My friend used those branches for her centerpieces and used a tall cylinder-shaped vase filled with sand so the branches were stable….I can show you pics since it’s kinda hard to describe.
my friend had one of these and used white rice to keep the branches secure. she also had white beans as backup. it worked great and looked cute.
If you do the cement, you could also spread moss over the cement to cover it.
I have used plaster mix to secure the branches in a terra cotta pot for topiaries I’ve done. Simply follow the instructions of the mix, pour in the pot (1/2 to 3/4 full, leaving room for moss covering or even wet foam to put fresh flowers, nice coordinating bow helps too). The plaster is really heavy and secure when dried, plus the pot is cheap. Depending on your theme, you may not even have to cover up the pot. You can paint the pot or give it a little metallic shine by doing this:
1. fill water in a tub that you can throw away or get paint on, deep enough to cover the pot to be painted
2. spray metallic paint on top of the water
3. dip pot in water, wave it around a bit and get layers of paint whereever you want
4. repeat to get desired result
good luck with it!
they sell quick set, lightweight cement at art stores. i forget the exact name, but i used it years ago for projects. you could make a base out of it with that.
my florist is covering the base of my [his] manzanita trees with flowers and/or river rock.
It will be so sentimental since it’s from your Grandma’s yard and lucky for you that Papa Lemon can help. Those are some great suggestions that the ladies above have posted. I think that is so nice.
i’m sure you already know this, but watch out for those branches! my friend had them at her wedding as centerpieces and they were sooo scratchy! it doesn’t look like your guests will be attacked by them at your wedding, but be careful assembling your wish tree. it’s a great idea and i think it will be really pretty!
Beautiful branches. Make sure the table you’re setting it on is stable/secure and not too tall. Make sure you test out that the table and branches in the container are not wobbly and that the guests can reach the higher branches.
Cassie raises a good point — seems like a “triangular” arrangement of the branches is wise since you already know it’s going to be in that corner. That will use the space nicely and keep guest from getting scratched (avoiding eyeball height).
Do you want the base of the branches to show? If that doesn’t matter, you have more options for sturdy-but-ugly aparatus, because you can drape fabric softly around the bottom (like a Christmas tree skirt, but weaving between, too) so the structure does not show.
[...] wish tree turned out wonderfully! After we constructed the wish tree, we soon realized that tying any sort of ribbon to the branches may result in the loss [...]
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Mrs. Lemon, Los Angeles/Monterey Age and Occupation in 2006: 26, Graduate Student (Public Policy) Fiance's Age and Occupation in 2006: 29, Environmental Consultant Engagement Date: April 7, 2006 Wedding Date: July 7, 2007 Venue: Rosary Chapel & Monterey Marriott, Monterey, CA About Me: My FI and I met online, but we like to tell people that we met at a "cookie shop" which is the technical location of our first encounter. He proposed exactly 1 year, 1 month and 6 days after our first date (it's the only part of his proposal speech that I remember), and we're planning long-distance from Los Angeles for a July wedding in my hometown of Monterey, CA. I have a passion for all things "cool, cute and quirky" and I enjoy video games, reading blogs (WeddingBee, trashy celeb, consumer & political) and crafting in my spare time, if I have any!
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