After a lot of thinking about guestbooks, I realized I really want a tree, and not just any tree, but an autumn looking tree.
When I last talked about guestbooks, guest poster Ashley gave me this link for this free printable tree design (the same one Miss Panda will be using):
Image via One Fab Day
I downloaded it and put it on the back burner, until a few weeks ago, when I realized I better put my behind to work.
So, I headed to my local Office Depot and printed a trial run on a 36″ x 27″ paper sheets for 28 pesos (about 2 USD). I printed the A3 template because it is bigger than the A4. I’m really not sure if it’s the best one, I just know it looks great.
So I had the tree, but I couldn’t find cute ink-pads anywhere in town—there was only black, blue, and red (standard pen red, not cute red), and they only came in big square pads. Not really cute. So I started researching hoping to buy something from the States, when a fantastic fellow bee came to the rescue:
Thanks, Miss Buffalo!
So, armed with Miss Buffalo’s awesome gift, Mr. Toadstool, my sister, and I tried our thumbs in the tree; the leaves look exactly as I wanted, but I mentioned the rest of the tree looked a bit dead, so my sister took her pastel chalks and gave me this:
I told her to make the grass orange-ish (because it’d look odd with green grass and orange leaves), but I’m not really sure about it. I’m planning to remove the heart—I feel it makes it look to cartoon-ish—and of course I’ll add our names and date.
We played a bit with it, adding just a few leaves so we can get an idea of how it’d look; we signed them on the left side of the tree and left them blank on the right side. I feared the signatures would look too overwhelming, but I can barely see them and I’d like to know which print belongs to whom, so we’ll instruct our guests to sign their names on their print—we might just need a better pen.
We put about 130 prints on the tree, but we’re expecting to get more on the big day. We’re expecting at least 220 guests, so let’s hope it doesn’t get messy.
Any suggestions, hive? Do you have any advice for the grass?
ooh, I really love what you did with it. I thought I wanted mine to not be colored at all, except for the leaves, but you are changing my mind right now! love it!
i LOVE what your sister did with the chalk! it looks beautiful. and i’d go ahead and do green grass- i think it will brighten everything up a bit
I love the pastels!! The grass is pretty as is but I would maybe do a yellow green if you wanted some green in there. It’ll fit better with the autumn theme. Can’t wait to see it all filled out! 
I think it turned out great!! And seriously, I’m SO happy that the ink pads worked out for you!
One thing to keep in mind make sure you give the guests a LITTLE guidance on where to put them–ours was balloons, and you would think that it would be self explanatory as to where to put their prints, but it’s not! We have a bunch of disconnected balloons everywhere!
Make sure you have baby wipes for people to wipe their fingers off with!! I had guests that still had ‘green thumbs’ but they weren’t afraid the ink would come off on their dresses or anything..
I love the orange grass, but I think a light lime “late summer” grass color would look beautiful, too!
One tip: Take a picture of this trial run and put it in a frame by the blank tree at your reception. A dear friend of mine did this guestbook idea using the balloons base, and her guests put their thumbprints all over the paper instead of at the end of a string or in clumps. I might be too much of a perfectionist, but I would be devastated if people put all their leaves out in the sky instead of near branches.
@Miss Buffalo: @Miss Buffalo: Hah! I see I was a couple of seconds after you. The same thing happened to my friend. Balloons all over the place!
I love the pastels as well! I think the colors make it look gorgeous. Super awesome of @Miss Buffalo to send you the ink pads, too!
Love it! And I agree about removing the heart, its adorable but not for everyone.
I love how your sister shaded the tree in, this is going to be so pretty!
I LOVE what your sister added to it, I think it looks wonderful with the color!
This looks awesome. I love your sisters additions! It really pulls it all together.
it looks great as is i think! you could add in a bit of green or more brown? maybe also put some “leaves” on the ground like in a pile, that would be cute.
Mrs. Toadstool, Obregon, Mexico Age and Occupation: 23, Research Assistant Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Sales Manager Engagement Date: October 1, 2011 Wedding Date: December 2012 Venue: Hacienda los Agaves About Me: I’m a born and bred Mexican girl with a severe coffee addiction, an obsession for books and an aversion for exercise. I like to plan things, so this wedding’s my dream project---I just need to remind myself from time to time that I’m the bride and not just the planner. I recently realized brown’s my favorite color as I was trying to incorporate it in every aspect of our wedding and I'm dreaming of an autumn vibe since we don’t have that around here. I’m marrying my best friend and partner in crime on the day of our nine-year anniversary! He’s an awesome, smart, fun guy who is patient, and crazy enough to spend the rest of his life with me. We’re planning our not-so-dreamy dream wedding in December in a non-traditional way and making it our own.
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