My Guest book

Now I had a really hard time with my guest book. I didn't want the blah white book with one line for a name and well wishes that ran anywhere from $14 for the really really plain ones to the high forties for the ones with slightly more embellishment. I started researching as usual and saw tons and tons of good stuff. Some I would probably use like the wishing well and others I wouldn't dream of using like the clothesline with paper pinned to it for each person to write their wish ( a bit much for me) and definitely not within my theme. Since i'm an 'outside the box' type of person, I wanted to do something that was my own or at least tweak someone else's idea to make it my own.

An idea that had me salivating was this gorgeous photo book. It's exactly the type of thing I wanted and it came in white and pastel blue, either of which I could use.

The concept is to take polaroid pictures of your guests when they arrive at the ceremony and they get printed instantly. You then place the pictures in the book and during the reception, the guests can find their pictures and write their wishes next to them. I mean isn't that so cool? One of the biggest problems with the regular guest book is that people wish you well but not print their names and you're left wondering just who wrote what. This was one way of solving that.There was a huge problem however - THE PRICE! The cheapest I could find was $59 and then I had to find a polaroid camera, (not the easiest thing to find these days). Where the heck was I going to find a poloroid camera? I went to the source of all sources, Ebay and found some but they were really expensive and then I would have to find film, another issue since these things are not being made anymore and I was told that the film expires so I had to be careful not to buy expired film on ebay. Sheesh!

So I decided to research alternatives of a similar vein and found this kit It cost $147. The kit includes the book of only 30 pages, the instant camera, and the film for 40 photos. You can add more pages and extra film for extra money.

This meant that I could only take 40 photos and place 30 into the book. That just wouldn't do since I have 80 guests and they're not all couples, plus there was realy no way I was going to spend that kind of money on a guest book, however cute and definitely not with my budget. I was determined to get what I wanted however for about $20 even if I had to make it myself. Well I didn't have to. Out of the blue, Oh my goodness!! I remembered the guest book I had used for my son's shower. It was perfect, except that I had already used half of it for the shower. I felt it would be a little tacky to use the same book with pictures and well wishes from my friends at the shower so I went down to papyrus to see if I could get another one. I had paid $24 for it. Did I mention it was the perfect color?
and the inside


But alas, it was not to be. Papyrus didn't carry it anymore and they didn't have any guest books other than the same boring old white stuff. I was thoroughly frustrated at that point. Just when I had such a eureka moment and thought I had solved my problem.

Since I work only 2 blocks away from Papyrus, I checked back often to see if I'd have any luck. Just maybe they'd find one in the back under a box or something. You see I now had it firmly in my head that that was the book for me.

After about 2 weeks of driving the sales people crazy, a darling young man called me (I had left my number, and my email address - desperate much?) he said that they had received some books and although he didn't know if it was what I wanted that I should come and check. Needless to say I was there before you could say 'wedding-planning-driving-me-crazy'.

I found the most PERFECT little book. I mean everything about it was perfect.

First of all, it's aqua. It has this really great picture on the front with the word BEGIN on the front. I mean how appropriate is that. And to top it off, there's a little butterfly on the bottom. Butterflies just happen to be one of my favorite things.

And if that wasn't great enough, it's like they tailor-made the inside just for me. On the left page, there are lines for writing whatever you want and on the right page is a space with a border that fits a 4x6 picture and it only cost $16.95. And it has space for 100 pictures. If you look really closely, you can kinda see it. I am estatic and ranting.
I can have someone take pictures of guests as they arrive at the ceremony and print them during the cocktail hour. We can then circulate the book during the reception so guests can put in their thoughts.

Sigh, I'm soooo happy.