Weddingbee Blog

The first time I saw this guestbook over at the Classic Bride blog, I fell in love with the Tree Guest Book with thumbprints idea! How cool would it be to have such a personal stamp from every one of our guests?

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Later while buzzing around on the boards, I saw that one of the hive members, Roddy Bride (one of my first “blog friends”), was actually planning on doing this, too! I could not wait to see her finished product! I was so excited when she finally shared her guestbook. It’s so AWESOME!

They painted their tree on a canvas and the look is so pretty!

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So, inspired by the pictures above, I decided to draw our own version of a wedding tree.

I opened my beloved Illustrator program and got to work. I drew as many branches as I could on our tree so each guest can have space to place their print, since we still don’t know how many guests we will end up having. I just drew 190 leaves and then added some more so I lost count… I hope we don’t have more than that number of guests! LOL

I wanted it to be very personalized, so I drew our names on the branches. I love the result!

I showed my progress of the drawing to my MOH (She’s staying with us for a few weeks, YAY!) and she laughed at me because she said it was kind of funny looking. But that’s OK, she always says I’m funny looking, too… so I know she liked it!

So, this is the finished version, but I need to replace the leaves with our guests’ thumbprints.

I also personalized it with our wedding date.:) I’m such a sucker for carved stuff!! But don’t worry, I don’t carve anything on actual live trees, just on pieces of wood or in computer drawings… hehe!

But in order to get our tree to appear to be full of leaves, we need our guests to know where to place their thumbs and to guide them a little bit. I thought about leaving a slight shade of green for the leaves so our guests can see exactly where to place their prints, But I’m not sure if this is a good idea.

I’m searching for a cool BIG vintage frame to use with it, and I’ll be printing a big canvas. I think the final one I make will be about 20” x 25”, or maybe even bigger.

I am planning on getting a sign with directions so our guests can practice before they print their thumbprints. But I’m still not sure what option for the actual poster will be the best. So, I come to the hive for advice!

Option A: No leaves at all, just the branches. This is so our guests can place their prints any way they’d like.

Option B: Leaves with a 20% opacity, so the guests can see them and use them as a little guide where they can place their thumbprints on top of.  I don’t want the printed leaves to be opaque enough to be too noticeable.