WEDDING DIY: ALTERNATIVE GUESTBOOK

We weren't too sold on the idea of having a 'traditional' guest book, mainly because we'd been to a few weddings in 2016 and found that they never ended up getting filled and we didn't want to be left with a half-empty book that, to be honest, we probably wouldn't look at very much again. To find something a bit different I started where any right-minded person would (especially a bride), Pinterest. I can't remember exactly what I searched for but something along the lines of 'alternative guest book ideas' and this is where some of my inspiration came from.

Originally I was thinking of having a board with string across and loads of different pictures of Nick and I pegged on so that guests could pick a picture off, write on the back and then peg it back on. I started getting a couple of bits for this but realised it was going to be a bit difficult - how would people know which pictures had been written on? How big would the board need to be (quite big)? How would I get another easel to hold the board up? etc etc - so I had a think and developed the idea. What inspired the final choice was a trip to good old Waterstones where I spotted a gorgeous pack of 100 post cards, all with different literature quotes and in the perfect black and white, art deco style. As soon as I saw them I knew they were perfect, and I'd work out what to do with them after!

To keep it simple, I thought putting them in a box next to a sign (I already owned the chalkboard below - minus the poem!) would be the easiest way and upon a trip to Homesense (bloody love that place) I found THE perfect box, once again in an art deco design that just screamed my name. The huge gold bow was bought by Mum with no specific intention, but it worked perfectly stuck to the corner of the lid to add some extra pizazz. I put some gold tissue paper inside the box to fill it out a bit and left some pens on the table too to make sure people had everything they needed.

The box, the postcards and the sign were all placed on a table in the lobby area, along with the post box for guests to leave wedding cards, and it worked perfectly! It was so fun going through the postcards the next day to see what people had written, and I feel like because it wasn't a strict 'guestbook' and we were asking for advice, people were able to be a bit more creative and some of them were hilarious! I'm going to share a few of the lovely messages we got over on Instagram so head over there if you want to have a look.

If you're thinking about doing something other than a guestbook definitely check out Pinterest (like you haven't already!) - it doesn't have to be expensive, I think this cost about £30 in total, although that doesn't include the chalkboard which I've had for about 8 years (this was from TK Maxx so definitely look in there or in Homesense for some inspiration). It added something a bit different and my plan now is to get some of the postcards framed so that we can have them around to look at and we'll keep the rest in the box along with all of the gorgeous wedidng cards we received.

#wedding #DIY #popular