Weddingbee

After some deliberation, I’ve decided how to use the vintage mailbox that I purchased in Kalispell.

First, I was considering using it as a card box. Then, I was considering using it as an alternative to a guest book. Then, I realized I could just as well do both!

What we’ll do is set the mailbox on a table or secure it near a table on a post, with a sign that says something like “for your cards and well-wishes.” Near the mailbox, we’ll place a nice, fine-tipped pen and stacks of these…

…an assortment of pre-addressed, stamped, vintage replica Glacier National Park and Montana postcards.

I would never have known that these awesome postcards existed, but that I was given a book of them by Mr. Cherry Pie’s dad after our engagement. He’d removed one…a postcard with the image of Gunsight Lake (where Mr. CP proposed) and had written us a message on the back, “Here on August 26, 2006, Justin proposed to Kat! And she accepted! Congratulations!”

I was also able to get the postcards for half-off retail price because they’re printed at FarCountry press, the Montana publisher that owns Montana magazine, where I interned in the summer of 2004.

After our guests put the postcards in the box, we’ll remove all of the wedding-gift cards and give the postcards to Mr. CP’s dad without reading them. Our plan is to have him mail them to us, one by one, over the coming weeks and months so we can receive a stream of happy letters as newlyweds. Hopefully they won’t all be filled with criticism and sour-grapes advice as I’ve heard some Bees’ wish-bowls have been.

What do you think? Are any of you forgoing traditional guestbooks and taking a more creative avenue?

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