detail post #4: the guest book

Now on to the one DIY project that heard about the most from our guests - our guestbook.

For a long time, we just assumed that we would go to craft store, pick out a cute, relatively inexpensive guest book and say "done". No fuss, no mess, no hours spent on another project. But, then we got to thinking about it....we wanted to have something that wouldn't end up dusty and stored away in a closet or a box somewhere. We wanted it to actually tell the story of our six year relationship and feel like "us". All of this of course meant that another project had to be added to our list. So we made this:

(click any of the photos to enlarge)

Actually, Blurb made this, we just designed and formatted it all. Our book was the smallest (7x7 inches), cheapest ($25 with the help of an online coupon) hard bound option they offered. We were happy with their print quality, the thickness and glossiness of the interior pages, and their easy design and formatting options. If I were to grade them, I'd give them an A, and we'll probably use them again for future projects.

Jesse has probably never thrown anything away in his life. It's a personality quirk that I usually curse but came to treasure during the making of this book. It meant that we still had school ID cards from the year we met, receipts from our first date, notes and letters that we'd written each other, and ticket stubs to nearly every movie, concert and play we'd attended together. And we packed all of that stuff in, surrounded by years of photo booth strips and short written descriptions to give our guests a handy 40 page synopsis of our relationship. We were happy with how it turned out, but even happier with the well-wishes and nice notes that our guests wrote inside (these photos were taken weeks before the wedding - the lined pages are now covered with awesome-ness).

next detail post: misc. last minute design projects