Leaving Your Mark

I never got around to talking about plans for a guest book, because it was yet another one of the items left until the last minute, even though I always had it figured out.

Here's the inspiration:

From a site called teardropweddings.com which looks to be inactive now.

This picture is the very first item on my wedding Pinterest board.  So I was pretty set on the idea of a thumbprint guest book print right from the beginning.  Sphinx and I attended a wedding a few months before we got engaged that included a thumbprint tree for the guest book.  It turned out nicely and the biggest concern (getting my fingers inky while dressed up), wasn't really a problem because they provided baby wipes.

I was really drawn to the idea of the fingerprints, maybe because I personally find the task of leaving guest book messages a little bit awkward.  Not because I don't like sweet messages, but personally I always freeze and don't know what to write.  Do I go funny or sappy?  Oh crap, why can't I think of an inside joke with this person?  So when I can't decide, I usually end up writing something lame and generic a la Lizzie McGuire.

But you do rock, Lizzie.  Don't ever change./Photo found on Say Something Sarcastic

So something where our guests just had to sign their name sounded ideal to me.  And I really liked how the the balloon-inspired print would tie in with our Magic Kingdom balloon Save the Dates!

A good friend of mine, T, is a great artist and he offered up his talents as a gift for any wedding crafts I needed.  I already had our cake topper taken care of, so I asked him if he could draw a little Pyramid and Sphinx caricature for the print. After showing him some inspiration, he said he had some ideas and I let him run with it! Here's what T came up with:

It was T's idea to include a Spartan helmet for Sphinx and some details of my dress, but in the first draft, he had Mickey Mouse ears on me.  I requested the change to a tiara, even though I had a bit of hesitation.  "Wait, I'm not a tiara-wearing bride! Oh..Sphinx isn't dressing in ancient battle armor for the wedding. I guess we're good."  

Once I received the final version, I sized it properly, added on lines to serve as balloon strings, some text, and sent it off to BM Dino to print for me.  I popped the print into a 16"x 20" frame with glass removed, and it was ready to be set out at our welcome table.  I bought some single ink pads from Michael's in wedding-ish colors: teal, yellow, indigo, and magenta.  Sphinx and I made a sign that said something like "Fill in our balloons and sign your name!" with our own fingerprints to show what we mean (said sign is MIA).  We also had a few bridal party members start it off the day before, so the intent was clear for the guests.  

At the end of the night, here's what we ended up with!  

At the very top right, you can see that some of my Disney Program friends made a "hidden Mickey." So creative!

Did all of our guests sign it? Probably not.  Do we have a pretty cluster of balloons?  Not really...but the colors are nice, and I still like the overall effect! 

If you're thinking of making a finger/thumbprint guest book, here are some tips:

• Tape the print to the cardboard backing of the frame, to keep the paper flat while you have no glass front. 
• DO NOT use chalk ink pads (I used this brand).  The colors were great, and they made for some clear prints, but writing on top of the chalk ink seemed to mess up the pens.  Overall, the result was good and we can still read the names, but I can imagine it was annoying for guests to write!  
• Provide baby wipes.  Nobody wants to risk ink on their nice outfit, so do a test run to make sure the ink you choose can be removed with the wipes you buy. 

Also, we kind of got the best of both worlds here: the guests that wanted to be a little bit more wordy with their well-wishes had that opportunity with the photo booth scrap book, and we've enjoyed reading those (especially the ones written later in the night).

The guest book was cheap, it turned out pretty, and it's definitely special because the drawing was done by a friend and filled in by all of our loved ones.  This wasn't really the highest priority item, but I'd say it was a successful project that I'm glad we included.  I wish we had finished it sooner than the Wednesday before the wedding, but that was all my procrastination problem again!