Skipping the Guest Book & Keeping the Love

Guest books are a staple of most weddings. Traditionally, they've been used as a way for guests to share their feelings of happiness and love with the bride and groom during their wedding day. The book is then kept as a keepsake for years to come.

While this is a great way for guests to wish the newlyweds well, guest books can be very expensive. Personalized ones can run more than $50.00 a piece! For a couple on a budget, this would be an easy way to save money. But, just because you don't have a guest book, doesn't mean your guests can't still share their love with you.

Try this idea, borrowed from my best friend's wedding in Holly Springs, North Carolina. She incorporated her version of a guest book directly into her place settings. Every place was set with silverware, a lined sheet of green paper, a wedding program, a pen, and a candy bar.

The candy bar and pen were favors, but the pen also allowed guests to fill in their green lined paper. The green sheet requested that each guest "please share your best wishes and advice for the couple as they start their life together". Guests used the sheet to wish the couple well, remember happy times spent together, and celebrate the couple's love.

Sheets were collected at the cake table throughout the reception. The bride's mother and aunt collected the sheets after the reception, and kept them safe for the couple during their honeymoon. After her honeymoon, the bride used the sheets and pictures from the wedding to create her own memory book. She matched the sheets with the pictures of the people who wrote them, then bound everything in a scrapbook. This way, when she and her husband look back at their wedding memories, they have more than just the words of love from their friends, but also a face to match with those words.

The bride was able to print all the guest sheets on her own computer, using paper that matched her wedding colors. Using sheets allowed her guests more room to express themselves while helping her stay in budget. Matching pens with the sheets added function to her favors, ensuring that all her guests could take part in the fun. This pocketbook-friendly idea creates a keepsake you'll treasure for years to come.

Lantern Light Wedding

Earlier this month I worked my first "destination" wedding. The wedding took place in Fort Walton, Florida...four states from my business. The bride had planned her wedding, and asked that I step in to run things on her wedding day.

She had decided to have the wedding at night by lantern light. It was beautiful! Paper lanterns were hung on Shepard crooks to create a unique aisle for the bride's entrance. Christmas lights added light to the stairs and banisters of the pier the wedding was held on, as well as the reception venue. Lanterns holding candles accented the alter.

Instead of flowers, the bridesmaids carried lanterns with battery-operated tea lights inside. Not only were these a new take on bridal flowers, but the lanterns added an extra element of beauty to the wedding. These then became the girls' thank you gifts for participating in the bridal party.

These creative touches didn't blow her budget either. She was able to find most of her items at Target, the Dollar Tree, and Dollar General, allowing her to create big budget ambiance with the big budget headache. I tip my hat to the bride for her ingenuity in using lanterns to light her wedding and stretching her budget so efficiently.