Take a Look, It’s In a Book

Take a Look, It’s In a Book

December 31st, 2009 @ 4:43 pm by Mrs. Rainbow
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Our guestbook, that is!

Take a Look, It's In a Book : wedding decor reception Reading reading

Now, I may not be LeVar Burton, but I am Miss Rainbow and I’d like to think that my namesake’s connection to The Reading Rainbow has caused some of his book selecting magic to rub off on me—albeit only in the form of guestbooks—but I mean… that counts… right? Right? Anyone? Ooookay, moving on…

Early on in our wedding planning adventures, I was browsing Google and The Knot looking for guestbook ideas. Why I was even concerned with the guestbook so early on, I cannot tell you. But I was, and I blame it on Bride Brain. As a matter of fact, I now blame everything on Bride Brain. Let’s take a look-see…

Me: “Honey, can you get me a glass of water?”
Mr. Rainbow: “You’re 5 feet away from the kitchen and I’m all the way in the loft. Plus, the last time I checked, your legs work.”
Me: “But… uhm… please!? I think I just broke my ankle!”
Mr. Rainbow: silence
Me: “But… I’m researching something for OUR wedding that I’m planning all by myself and I can’t leave the laptop or the world will implode. It’s not 2012 yet honey. Do you want to be responsible for the world ending? Well, do you?”
Mr. Rainbow: continued silence (I think he’s ignoring me)
Me: “Fine!”

See, it’s Bride Brain at it’s best! Okay, okay, maybe we’ve never had that exact conversation, but it’s happened many times in my head, I promise. Take a Look, It's In a Book : wedding decor reception Silly silly

Anyway, I digress. Back to the guest book!

After a few minutes of e-browsing I found this little pretty which I promptly fell in love with.

Take a Look, It's In a Book : wedding decor reception 3513149.jpg

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A wish tree! What a great alternative to a boring ol’ run-of-the-mill guest book. Cute, no? I thought it was perfect and before I knew it, I found myself at Michaels buying supplies for our very own guestbook wish tree. I bought the paper, the tag hole puncher (40% off, whoop!), the ribbon, basically everything but the tree. And then… and then… I saw this:

Take a Look, It's In a Book : wedding decor reception Wedding03.jpg

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Wish Jars! Make a wish, take a wish. Love it! This was my new guest book, for sure! I bought some apothecary jars (one of which now has a huge crack, ugh) and was rearing to go.

Until I saw this:

Take a Look, It's In a Book : wedding decor reception Tree1

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A guest tree made with thumb prints! Hello, fabulous! I could even decorate a few branches with the little bird stamp I bought at Michaels… adorable! Yup, until I realized that we’re only inviting around 30 people and that would surely make a sad little tree. Are we seeing a trend here?

Then! Yes, again. Then I saw this:

Take a Look, It's In a Book : wedding decor reception Mwd1048 Conversation Starter Guestbook

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OMG, I love this idea. It’s like wedding Mad Libs, but not. It’s more like wedding “finish this sentence”, but that’s not nearly as fun as saying “Mad Libs”, am I right? Your guests get to pick whatever phrase they want to use and they complete the sentence. Something like this would be so much more fun to read than “Congratulations on your wedding” and it will encourage those guests that generally only sign their name to get a little creative.

And then (I know, I have a problem) I came across this:

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Eee! Okay, for real, I’m officially dying from cuteness. Your guests not only get to leave a message and some little tidbits of info, but they also get to DRAW A DOODLE OF THEMSELVES!!! What?! Yes!!! Please take note of my excitement. Hello, awesome sauce. How much fun would this be to look back on?! I die.

So, now you see, I am officially stumped. Apparently that LeVar Burton magic did NOT, in fact, rub off on me. I cannot make a fun and catchy yet educational selection like The LeVar (that’s his new name). Obviously The LeVar is better at this than me. Obviously I should stick to my day job. Obviously I am in desperate need of some help from the hive.

Which of these ideas should we use as our guestbook? What are you doing for your guestbook? Have you gotten irrationally hung up on any particular detail?

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28 Responses to “Take a Look, It’s In a Book”

1 2 Last

Bee

Miss Spaniel (message) 6,792 posts, Bee Keeper

We’re doing a photobook of our engagement pictures… I think it will make a great coffee table book, and that way I know I’ll look at the guestbook again. I’d be less likely to do the wish tree or jars because they take up so much space, they’d be hard to keep…

I like the last one you found best!

12/31/09 @ 4:48 pm (reply)

Member

Swiss Miss to Bee (message) 1,004 posts, Bumble bee

I def. don’t want to do your old run of the mill guest book either. I reeeally like that last book, but if you do that, I wouldn’t have a “guest book table” becuase I envision people lining up to “sign” but then getting discouraged because it’s taking so long for the people in front of them that they just give up. Know what I mean? So if you go with that one, you might be better off passing it table by table during dinner or something.

I saw the 2′nd to the last one too, and love the idea. They are ALL great actually! Good luck!

12/31/09 @ 4:49 pm (reply)

Member

tea (message) 7,263 posts, Bee Keeper

a friend of mine did the wish tree. i didn’t attend the wedding but saw pictures of it and it looked really pretty! though i can’t imagine being tasked with taking those notes down. aye.

i like the fourth idea with the almost kinda mad libs wedding guestbook.

12/31/09 @ 4:57 pm (reply)

Bee

Miss Pug (message) 3,753 posts, Honey bee

those are such great ideas. i really like the wish tree because it’s such a lovely presentation, but maybe more of a pain because of getting and setting up the branches? however, you are so crafty that i’m sure that wouldn’t be an issue for you!

12/31/09 @ 5:08 pm (reply)

Bee

Miss Buttons (message) 5,045 posts, Bee Keeper

That last book looks so freakin cool!!!!

We are going the wish tree route…I became obsessed early on in the planning process (similar to Fro Yo’s tree ideas)!

12/31/09 @ 5:37 pm (reply)

Bee

Miss Frozen Yogurt (message) 2,685 posts, Sugar bee

I’m doing the wish tree, but I love the mad libs!!

12/31/09 @ 5:47 pm (reply)

Hostess

Jessie516 (message) 5,480 posts, Bee Keeper

We did the photo frame, which looks nice with a wedding photo. However, I LOVE the idea of a Mad-Lib-esque book. We did get a lot of repeat comments from people and I think a writing prompt would encourage creativity and individuality.

12/31/09 @ 6:03 pm (reply)

Bee

Miss Nachos (message) 1,733 posts, Bumble bee

I love the idea from the first picture! We did something like that at a friend’s shower and I may have to snag that idea for our after home party!

12/31/09 @ 7:56 pm (reply)

Member

Charm bracelet (message) 1,935 posts, Buzzing bee

I have about 3 of those pictures saved too! I don’t know that this would work for our families. I realized awhile back that a lot for a lot of family members, English is there second language and they might not be comfortable writing in English.
My favorite idea is the three cards with the prompt.

12/31/09 @ 8:17 pm (reply)

10.

Member

KB (message) 169 posts, Blushing bee

I really love the last idea, but my favorite is the wishing tree. That’s what I’m planning on doing.

12/31/09 @ 9:13 pm (reply)

11.

Member

krissycake (message) 4,160 posts, Honey bee

ours ended up kinda rainbow-y!

http://set2music.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/guestbook-part/

We basically took reams of paper, had people sign all over on their table, and then we collected all the pics and notes and made one big display!!

12/31/09 @ 10:34 pm (reply)

12.

Member

completelyrandomsally (message) 618 posts, Busy bee

@ Miss Spaniel - We did the same thing you are doing. Well, I don’t know if it is exactly the same. We made a Shutterfly book of engagement photos with my free coupon from David’s Bridal. Perfect guest book!

It sits on our coffee table and we do look at it. Often. People signed around the photos. My dad and stepmom still need to sign the book though (almost 2 months later).

12/31/09 @ 11:28 pm (reply)

13.

Bee

Miss Trail Mix (message) 6,308 posts, Bee Keeper

Hmmmmm, tough call! I think I like the jar idea best but they’re all awesome!

1/1/10 @ 9:50 am (reply)

14.

Bee

Miss Argyle (message) 2,516 posts, Sugar bee

That last one is a fun idea to get guests into it! Love it!

1/1/10 @ 2:42 pm (reply)

15.

Bee

Miss Scissors (message) 7,343 posts, Bee Keeper

I *love* the last one. I might do a copycat version of it. :p

1/1/10 @ 3:29 pm (reply)

16.

Bee

Miss Cardigan (message) 8,645 posts, Bee Keeper

You sound like me with our guestbook. I’ve changed my mind a million times. As of now, I plan to make one out of our engagement photos…but we’ll see.

1/1/10 @ 4:14 pm (reply)

17.

Guest

Lisa

I had this same issue because I am always frozen when trying to come up with something to write in a guest book. I decided to go with a kind of hybrid of a number of ideas. I made a book with one engagement photo on each two page spread. Then, each spread has a wedding mad libs sentence starter. I’m planning on laying the pages out on a larger table so that people can write on whichever page they choose.

1/1/10 @ 10:33 pm (reply)

18.

Guest

Mrs. Chic

they are all sooo cute! but the most do-able one for me would be the madlibs… i could see the last one or the thumbprint one taking my guests forever and then some people would just skip over it!

1/1/10 @ 10:58 pm (reply)

19.

Member

Miss Shortstop (message) 97 posts, Worker bee

I’m thinking of buying an old-school Polaroid camera to have at the guest book so guests can take a photo of themselves, attach it to the guestbook, and write something under the photo. I also thought about using those Mad Lib cards (thanks Martha Stewart!)

1/2/10 @ 12:24 am (reply)

20.

Bee

Mrs. Sprinkle (message) 545 posts, Busy bee

ok, i totally had this same problem, until it was ohhh three days before the wedding, and i gave up, and we just had a pretty average guestbook. all of these ideas are awesome!!

1/2/10 @ 1:11 pm (reply)

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