A Gorgeous Guest Book.

A dear friend got married this weekend.  I was asked to choose a reading for the ceremony and to make something for the guestbook.  Between those two, finding the reading was the most difficult.  I finally ran across the poem "Love" by Roy Croft.  If you have to read at a wedding, or just want a sweet sentiment to share with your spouse, I highly recommend it.  It is all about how we love our partners because they make us our best selves and they do it, "without a word, without a sign" they make us better just by being themselves!

Speaking of making something better, the bride requested note cards instead of a guest book.  She gave me her ideas on color scheme (purple and natural colored paper) but left all the decisions up to me. I knew I could do anything with the cards but felt that the hardest part would be finding an interesting box to collect the completed notes during the reception.  I wanted to find something purple, but that wasn't happening so I settled for a good shape and colors that were close to what I had in mind.  The box came from Hobby Lobby and thankfully it was half off on the day I went shopping.  It was styled to look like a suitcase in aged brown faux leather.  The only thing I didn't like was the white wash of paint on the edges.

Here is the finished box.  I painted all the trim a bright purple and then antiqued it by letting the purple dry completely, then adding a layer of brown acrylic paint, and then wiping off the brown paint with a sponge.  It is my favorite technique for playing up the texture of an item.  I showed specific steps in an earlier post, found here.  You can also see that I added a chip board letter M (the bride's new initial) to the top of the box.  The cool thing was all the guestbook stuff stored away inside the case before the wedding and after the cards were complete.  I assume the happy couple will find the box equally useful after the big day.

Once the box was taken care of, it was time to play around with note cards and pens.  I used my favorite flower pen idea, but this time with several small flowers (one fake hydrangea pulled apart) and a few feathers (one feather flower pic pulled apart).  Luckily the flowers were also half off on the day I went to Hobby Lobby.  I love that place! (....except for the one at Turkey Creek. They were rude to a friend of mine!)  I even found ball point pens with PURPLE ink!  I hope the bride can use the pens to write thank you notes or something later, because I LOVED writing with the fancy feather pens.  In fact they were so pretty that when they were sitting in the pen holder cup, one lady thought they were flowers an asked where the pens were!  The note cards were just basic craft paper blank cards that I stamped with purple ink,  They were also bought at Hobby Lobby and were also half off on the day I did my shopping.  We did not use the envelopes that came with them, but I sent them along to the bride so that if any cards were left over, she could use them for thank you notes.

Here is the set up of the guest book note cards at the reception.  It's a little hard to read, but the sign inside the box said "Instead of signing a guest book, please leave a note with your best wishes for the new Mr. and Mrs."  

Congratulations Elizabeth and Jason.  I hope you enjoy your guestbook as much as I enjoyed being a part of your special day!