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Miss Kettle, Chicago, IL Age and Occupation: 26, Non-Profit Donor Resource Coordinator Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Musician & Teacher Engagement Date: May 29, 2011 Wedding Date: February 2012 Venue: Patrick C. Haley Mansion, Joliet, IL About Me: I'm a city girl who loves a good escape, so I'm planning a Chicago wedding outside of the city. I've been described as a quirky yet down-to-earth drama queen who loves fiercely. I used to be a scientist, but now I'm learning to navigate the world of non-profit organizations. I love cooking, blogging, shopping, and music, and movies (Hans Zimmer is my favorite movie composer). Mr. Kettle and I had a short courtship and now we have a happy home with our cat-who-thinks-she's-people, Belle. We spend our days and nights with good food, live music, video games, family, and friends. Our wedding has become this wonderful excuse to bring together hundreds of people we can't bear to be without.
About Miss Kettle

Guest Book Schmuest Book

November 21st, 2011 @ 10:16 am by Miss Kettle

We didn’t want a traditional guest book. If we wanted a list of everyone’s names and numbers, I’d compile it all myself. Oh wait, I did. It’s called our guest list.

That being said, we did want some sort of memento for ourselves that would be a record of the guests who were there. Something other than our RSVP list, that is. There are some great ideas out there.

Guest Book Schmuest Book :  wedding chicago guestbook Mike St02 Mike-St02
Image via Give a Caricature / Having a caricature picture for them to sign would be great if we had any history with caricatures.

Guest Book Schmuest Book :  wedding chicago guestbook Bleudet02 bleudet02
Image via Bow Ties and Bliss / The thumbprint is pretty popular, but to be honest, I don’t want to have fingerprints of all those people on file should the police come looking…
Guest Book Schmuest Book :  wedding chicago guestbook Mwa103302 mwa103302
Image via Martha Stewart Weddings / When Martha Stewart does traditional, it does look enticing… Nah.
Guest Book Schmuest Book :  wedding chicago guestbook Theknot02 theknot02
Image via Wed Loft / Gotta love the photo guest book. It’s the top contender for ideas to us right now.
Guest Book Schmuest Book :  wedding chicago guestbook Unique 02 unique-02
Image via Lovely Little Things Blog / I can’t even tell what the book looks like, but I’m fascinated with the styling around the book.
Guest Book Schmuest Book :  wedding chicago guestbook Dsc 00302 dsc_00302
Image via Jamaica Wedding Blog / I’ve really loved this idea for a while, but we’re moving across state lines and then an ocean in the next handful of years, I can’t even imagine trying to move with a glass box/vase filled with rocks.
Guest Book Schmuest Book :  wedding chicago guestbook Guest B02 guest-b02
Image via Clark Walker Studio / We love music and we’re music people, but I can’t imagine ruining a record by letting people write on it. I listen to all my records on my record player.

So with all these wonderful options, I was in no place to decide when I lost my ability to make decisions. But with a few big decisions under my belt, I’ve rediscovered how to choose.

It helps that our photographer offers a couple great add-ons to our package. One of them is to do a portrait of us. They can turn that portrait into a guest book. The picture I linked to about shows the couple in a frame with a wide border to have room for their guests to sign.

We will have way more guests than any width of border will allow space to sign, so I had another idea. I figured we would just get an obscenely large photo taken of ourselves. We will wear all white so that people can just sign the pictures. That way, everything but our faces will be space to sign..at least that’s the idea.

I’ve got a great dress to wear. It’s the same one I was planning on wearing to our pre-wedding dinner. It’s pretty summery. Mr. Kettle is planning on wearing a summery look, too. I figure it will work since it will be one of the only real summer-like things going on with this wedding.

I have to talk to the photographer to make sure the idea will work, but I think it might. Momma Kettle doesn’t hate the idea, which is a bonus. If it works, we’ll be going in a couple weeks to take the photo.

Will you provide a photo for your guests to sign at your wedding? How are you incorporating photos of yourself into your guestbook?

Tags: chicago, guestbook |
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14 Responses to “Guest Book Schmuest Book”

1.
Bee Icon
Bee
Mrs. Parasol (message)  2,132 posts, Buzzing bee

Your idea sounds really cool! I’ve only ever seen pictures with a border for guests to sign, and I love your idea of wearing white and letting your guests sign right across you. And I think you’ll have a pretty awesome memento for you new home. :)

 
2.
futureMrsCPT
Member
futureMrsCPT (message)  589 posts, Busy bee

“The thumbprint is pretty popular, but to be honest, I don’t want to have fingerprints of all those people on file should the police come looking…”

ha ha I totally second this!

 
3.
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Member
lainsayssup (message)  42 posts, Newbee

I made a book on shutterfly using our engagement photos, leaving plenty of space around each for our guests to write a message. I made a little sign that said “write your wishes for the new mr. And mrs!”. Everyone wrote little notes and we have a nice way to display our engagement pics. The shutterfly book was super affordable, especially since we had a $20 off gift card that we received for registering at target.

You can also have your wedding party write in it first to deter people from just signing their names.

 
4.
Guest Icon
Guest
Micki

We are doing a puzzle

 
5.
Bee Icon
Bee
Mrs. Pony (message)  4,171 posts, Honey bee

This is a good idea, I can’t wait to see how it turns out!

 
6.
Bee Icon
Bee
Mrs. Funnel Cake (message)  690 posts, Busy bee

I ended up being too lazy to design a photo guestbook, so I just drew a thumbprint tree and called it a day. The guests loved the thumbprint idea because it was new to our family! I was original to them. ;-)

ps, I didn’t use my “thumb” on our tree. Mwahaha. :D

The white photo idea sounds unique to me!

 
7.
Guest Icon
Guest
James28

Our wedding was a destination so we bought a photography book of our wedding location. There was plenty of white space around the photos for people to sign. It was great, everyone took their time to decide on which picture they wanted to sign.

 
8.
Guest Icon
Guest
abby

We’re doing a puzzle, too. Everyone gets to sign a piece. Not sure what we’ll do to the pieces that don’t get signed! But I’m really looking forward to being able to put it together and put it on display after the wedding.

 
9.
Brittni
Member
Brittni (message)  47 posts, Newbee

That’s a great idea! Hope it works out for you:)

 
10.
Guest Icon
Guest
ButtercupBo

We had a ‘wedding map’ designed by NattyMichelle on Etsy and we’re planning on using that as the photo for the center of our wedding guest book/photo frame. The wedding maps will go out to each of our guests and we’ll have a large version to keep for ourselves!

 
11.
TinyTina
Member
TinyTina (message)  3,312 posts, Sugar bee

That is such an AWESOME idea! I hope it works out for you guys!

We’re going the photo guestbook route.

 
12.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Fox (message)  859 posts, Busy bee

It sounds like a great idea! We’ll be doing something along the poster idea line - not sure where I”m going with it yet, but it’s a top contender!

 
13.
Bee Icon
Bee
Miss Sunhat (message)  865 posts, Busy bee

Um did I know you were moving across state lines and then an ocean in the future?! *tear* - I’m going to lose my Bee buddy! I like the photo guest book idea - can’t wait to see the picture(s) you go with!

 
14.
Member Icon
Member
Future Army Wife (message)  1,101 posts, Bumble bee

I’m torn between an autograph frame and a guest polaroid photo album.

 

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Miss Kettle
Miss Kettle

Miss Kettle, Chicago, IL Age and Occupation: 26, Non-Profit Donor Resource Coordinator Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Musician & Teacher Engagement Date: May 29, 2011 Wedding Date: February 2012 Venue: Patrick C. Haley Mansion, Joliet, IL About Me: I'm a city girl who loves a good escape, so I'm planning a Chicago wedding outside of the city. I've been described as a quirky yet down-to-earth drama queen who loves fiercely. I used to be a scientist, but now I'm learning to navigate the world of non-profit organizations. I love cooking, blogging, shopping, and music, and movies (Hans Zimmer is my favorite movie composer). Mr. Kettle and I had a short courtship and now we have a happy home with our cat-who-thinks-she's-people, Belle. We spend our days and nights with good food, live music, video games, family, and friends. Our wedding has become this wonderful excuse to bring together hundreds of people we can't bear to be without.

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