Hand-me-down Guestbook

One of the last few things on my to-do list for the wedding was the guestbook. I really disliked the padded, white guestbooks that you see in stores and I had made up my mind to do something unique, but I didn't want it to take much time.

My mom suggested we use their old guestbook. I was not convinced at all that this would work, until she showed the book to me. My grandfather had made the cover out of wood and varnished it himself. This alone was enough to make me fall in love with it. The pages were simple brown butcher paper that my mom had copied her handwritten design on. It was held together with 2 adjustable metal rings. There was nothing written on the cover, the beautiful wood spoke for itself.


So, i took the book back to Chicago and crafted some of myself into it. I used our brown bag theme with ribbon to create a simple cover detail. Then I cut pages from our large supply of brown grocery bags and printed a simple layout on the front and back of each. Instead of using the metal rings, I found some old hemp string back in my closet and used it to bind the book together. Once all the pages have been put in, I will trim the hemp cord.


The last thing we're going to do is include my parents guestbook pages in the back of the book. It may be fun for our guests to flip back time and see who attended my parents wedding in 1980. And who knows, maybe this book will be passed down for generations. Wouldn't that be something?! :-)

12 days left!