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Alternative wedding guest book ideas

Alternative wedding guest book ideas

Your wedding day is a unique kind of day when your ‘circles’ all come together. It’s not often that you have all the people from different walks of your life in the same room at the same time. How wonderful to look around and see the people you love just there for you two.

Photographs are a brilliant way of capturing who celebrated your big day with you, plus traditionally guests sign a keep sake book and leave a poignant message for the happy couple to read back after the special day. This lovely tradition has got some modern updates and ingenious alternative ideas.

Paper Tree Design wedding tree

Here are a few of my favourite wedding guest book alternatives:

  • Photographs
    • Take polaroids of guests on the day and put them in a book alongside a handwritten message
    • Have a photo booth for people to take their own snaps of the day
    • Have a video diary or place where people can leave their own video messages
  • Paper
    • Have a recipe book where everyone contributes a favourite recipe to be printed in a book (see recipegiftbook.com below)
    • Get guests to complete a calendar with their message on their own birthday or special anniversary
    • Ask guests to write how they know bride & groom on postcards
    • Provide advice cards for guests to suggest date night ideas
    • Leave notes and cards in an engraved oak lift-lid box (see Make Memento below)
    • Get guests to put their best wishes on to labels to hang from a wish tree (see Tree of Hearts below)
    • Ask guests to write their messages and seal them in a bottle to be opened on their first anniversary
  • Furniture / homeware
    • Encourage guests to sign a pottery wedding plate that you can display or use in your kitchen (see Busy Brush Café below)
    • Get guests to sign a piece of wooden garden furniture such as a swing seat, table or bench
    • Ask people to sign decorative, keep sake items for your home such as a quilt, globe or Christmas baubles
    • Provide bottle labels for wine that people can write advice or wishes to be read on wine to be opened for future anniversaries
  • Poster / artwork
    • Use guests fingerprints to create the leaves on a tree on a canvas that be hung afterwards (see Tree of Hearts below)
    • Have hand written messages on various hearts placed around a cut out framed tree (see Paper Tree Design below)
    • Frame an illustration of your venue which guests can sign (see Illustrated Invites below)
    • Get your guests to contribute and colour in a giant poster mural (see Fancy Features below)
    • Ask your hen party to all ‘kiss the miss goodbye‘ and place their lipstick mark next to their signature for instant framed artwork
    • Provide wine corks for guests to sign and then be framed
    • Place signed pebbles or wooden hearts in a big glass vase
  • Games
    • Get guests to sign jigsaw or Jenga blocks
    • Write labels with wishes and attach them to balloons that can be launched at the end of the day

And take a look at these brilliant local suppliers that can bring a different angle to a guest book at your wedding:

Busy Brush Café

Busy Brush Cafe logo

Create a beautiful and highly personalised platter or serving plate, design it with a painting of your venue or of the happy couple and have it glazed and fired ready to present at your wedding along with a special ceramics pen that guests can use to write their message on the plate.

Busy Brush Cafe offer wedding plates of all shapes and sizes that can be used every day in the kitchen or hung up on the wall for decoration. Spend a couple of hours in the quirky and supportive cafe environment and have fun painting up your own plate, or have one of the team design it all for you to specification. The plates can then be collected a few days later once they’ve been glazed and kiln fired and the team will provide you with a permanent ceramics pen for guest messages that will last a lifetime! Prices range from £40 to £150 depending on size and detail required.

Busy Brush Cafe_signed-wedding-signature plate

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Fancy Features

Fancy Features make Giant Colouring In – fully personalised artwork hand illustrated to canvas ready to get coloured in by you and your friends at your event. We design and deliver artwork to clients all over the world.


Illustrated Invitation

Illustrated Invites logo

A small family business located in Somerset, who are passionate in bringing a niche service to wedding stationery.

Producing beautifully detailed pencil sketches of the couple’s wedding venue or church which are then used as a theme throughout the wedding stationery products. Choices of colours, font styles and wording of invitation according to your needs ensures a personal and unique touch to the couple’s stationery. “Designed exclusively for You”.

Our Guest Comment Frame is proving particularly popular for its uniqueness as we go one step further than to just leave a blank space for guests to write on at the reception.

We provide guests with ‘message cards’ for them to write on during the reception, which has proved to be a great talking point after the speeches have been done and dusted and a lull in the proceedings whilst coffee is being served.

After the honeymoon, the couple send us the cards to be edited onto the frame and these original cards are returned together with the completed frame.

Our specialty is that we either print or scan the original messages onto the frame around the sketch, ensuring that perfect spacing and an overall pleasing look is achieved. Providing this in either a black or white modern frame, this product not only doubles as a great keepsake but great to hang proudly in the home as a reminder of the Special Day!

Illustrated Invites guest comment frametwitter-1@illustratedinv

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Make Memento­

Our hand-engraved, solid oak keepsake boxes make the perfect wedding gift for the happy couple! Perfect for storing treasured wedding keepsakes and mementos, you can make this gift extra special by adding a personalised engraved date to mark the special occasion!

Handmade to order in our studio, our solid oak wood boxes have been lovingly designed and crafted using thick, heavy European oak timber. The wood is hand-cut, then individually sanded and treated to enhance the natural grain and preserve the beauty of the wood. Our boxes are finished with a chic hand-engraving and black infill, with the heart arrow finished with a red infill – producing a truly unique style. Finally, our oak boxes are finished with a clear gloss protective varnish to ensure durability and display a stunning finish. These lift-lid boxes are great for presenting and storing cards, photos and other treasured wedding mementos!


Paper Tree Design

Paper Tree Design | Logo | stationery

The wedding tree from Paper Tree Design is a great way to remember all the people who took part in your special day, family members on the hearts and friends written around the tree. It can be provided fully made up, or instead you can chose to have a blank tree and hearts for your guests to hand write around the tree. Various sizes are available depending on the number of guests, and prices start at  £50.00. The tree can be colour matched to the colour theme of the wedding, contact suzanne@papertreedesign.co.uk for further details.

Paper Tree Design was created through a love of paper and a desire to produce beautiful and personal stationery and decorations. Thoughtfully designed, we focus on quality and attention to detail to make your stationery truly individual. With a background in Fashion and Textile Design, and 15 years experience in retail buying and product development Suzanne has a wealth of experience to draw on and is passionate about delivering design with little personal touches that reflect the clients loves and interests.

Living in rural Oxfordshire Suzanne cannot help but be inspired by the beauty of the natural world and the changing seasons, and can frequently be found in lanes and hedgerows with her camera and a sketchbook. Specialising in paper cutting, at Paper Tree Design we create your handcrafted wedding stationery to order. Choose to personalise a card from one of our ranges or commission a bespoke design. I am at my best working with your theme and ideas for a truly personal invitation and welcome you to come and have a chat and a cuppa in my Oxfordshire studio to discuss plans for your wedding.

Paper Tree Design wedding treetwitter-1@PaperTreeOxon

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recipegiftbook.com

recipegiftbook logo

recipegiftbook.com enables friends and family to give a truly meaningful gift to the bride and groom, the gift of a recipe.

Create a beautiful keepsake to celebrate your wedding day, a cookbook filled with recipes from all your wedding guests.

Whether it’s treasured family recipes or modern favourites, your guests will have fun sharing their recipes, photos and personal messages with you. Guests simply add their recipes online then following your wedding a charming hardback cookbook is sent to you.

Creating a ‘recipe gift book’ is a great way to bring both families together in the run up to a wedding. It’s a special cookbook and a wonderful way to collect precious recipes and create something unique to celebrate your marriage.

The bride and groom can choose from six recipe book designs and personalise the front cover title to make their book unique. When complete the bride and groom will receive a beautiful hardback book, presented in a gift box. The finished recipe book is free for the bride and groom. The guests just pay £4.99 to add a page to the book. The bride and groom can order additional copies of their recipe book and even allow guests to purchase a copy too.

recipegiftbook.com supply the ultimate personalised wedding present from all of the guests, a gift the bride and groom will treasure long after their wedding day. Take a look at their introductory video to find out more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di7YPD3koBA

recipegiftbook design_modern

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Tree of Hearts

Tree of Hearts logo

Tree of Hearts specialises in personalised wedding stationery and has over 90 beautiful collections to choose from including traditional, modern, vintage and beach designs catering for a wide range of tastes and styles. They offer quality stationery at affordable prices and have everything you need from save the date cards and wedding invitations to order of service, table plans, fingerprint trees and thank you cards.

Free samples are available upon request so you can see and feel the quality of their stationery ensuring it is perfect for your special day.

Fingerprint trees can incorporate approximately 50 (small), 80-100 (medium) or 150-200 (large) fingerprints per tree size. Includes a personalised print and 3 small ink pads in colours of your choice.

Tree of Hearts_fingerprint tree

Wishing tree & wishing tags includes a white freestanding manzanita wishing tree (90cm tall) supplied with personalised wishing tags & sign in a design of your choice. The tags can be used for favour tags or wishing tags.

Tree of Hearts_wishing tags

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Local wedding suppliers at Cogges Manor Farm Wedding Open Day

Local wedding suppliers at Cogges Manor Farm Wedding Open Day

We are lucky in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds to have some highly talented, local suppliers who specialise in offering unique, bespoke and professional wedding services.

Plus, right on my door step, is the stunning barn venue at Cogges Manor Farm which I’m delighted to be supporting at their Wedding Open Day on Sunday 16th October 11am-3pm.

Come along for a tour of the amazing barns and gardens – perfect for your wedding venue.

I will be offering a drop in wedding planning clinic for couples who would like practical help to turn their ideas into reality.

You’ll also be able to see all these lovely local wedding suppliers too:

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Abigail’s Kitchen

Abigail's Kitchen logo

At Abigail’s Kitchen we pride ourselves on providing a completely bespoke service. We understand that every couple has a dream of their perfect day and that no two wedding days are alike. We provide free help and advice at the planning stages and meet to work with each couple to help them get the most from their budget, to allow those dreams to come true.
With that in mind, there are no set menus; we create each menu and service style to meet with the client’s requirements. This allows us to do everything from picnics and afternoon teas to a formal four course wedding breakfast. We also offer canapes, finger buffets, hot and cold fork buffets, pig roast and BBQ’s, cheeseboards with homemade chutneys and pickles, wedding cakes of cheese, evening food sausage and bacon rolls, and our ever popular 12 hour slow cooked pulled pork and coleslaw baps.
We use local suppliers wherever possible, and vegetables, salads and herbs are often home grown. We provide all white china, stainless steel cutlery, glasses and any serving equipment required by your menu choices, from 3 layer tea stands to 6ft long cheeseboards. We pride ourselves on our highly trained and experienced front of house staff that make your guests feel looked after from the first welcome drink to the last crumb of wedding cake.
Please do get in touch to arrange a meeting with Abigail at a time convenient to you (7 days a week and evenings and weekends). Call 07771 616415 or email abipritcher@yahoo.com

Abigail's Kitchen

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BHK Rentals

BHK logo

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Box Cottage Photography

Box Cottage Photography logo
As a photographer for over 16 years, assignments have taken we worldwide. I enjoy working locally within West Oxfordshire as much as being commissioned to photograph weddings around the world. I believe the key factor in supplying services is customer satisfaction. Having taken traditional wedding images for a number of years I made the decision in 2015 to take on a new challenge. Now fully trained and licensed by the Civil Aviation Authority to fly commercially, I am proud to be one of very few people permitted to take aerial images of our beautiful area and capture stunning memories. Take a look at some of my wedding clips on YouTube.

 Box Cottage Photography

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@boxcottagephoto

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Firkin Mobile Bars

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Isis Strings

Isis strings logo

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Lark Rise Flowers

Lark Rise logo

Lark Rise Flowers, are professionally qualified florists, based in the rolling countryside of North Oxfordshire. They provide flowers for weddings and events throughout Oxon, Bucks, Northants, and beyond.

Stock is sourced from the major flower markets, and if seasonally available from an expanding group of British growers. The Eco commitment continues with a policy of recycling waste packaging and surplus green material.

Sandra, the Proprietor, is happy to meet with you for personal consultations and site visits. She will work with your brief, budget, or theme, to create a unique day for you both.

The Lark Rise team have a wealth of experience, having provided many wedding flowers, and decorated most of the major wedding venues in the area. They take pride and care in their work, from the simplest buttonhole through to beautiful bridal bouquets and venue décor.

“Surrounded by nature – working with nature”

Lark Rise

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Lynn Tierney Ceremonies

Lynn Tierney Ceremonies logo

As a wedding celebrant, I love spending time getting to know you as a couple, your story, your dreams, what makes you tick as a couple and then using this to create bespoke wedding ceremonies that are all about you – a ceremony that your guests will remember, a ceremony that you will never forget. Using a celebrant opens up so many choices of where and when to hold your ceremony and what to include in it. Truly, your choice, your voice, your ceremony.

Lynn Tierney Ceremoniesfacebook logo@lynntierneyceremonies

instagram logo@lynntierneyceremonies

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Mabel & Rose

Mabel & Rose vintage prop logo

Mabel & Rose has a lovely array of original vintage and rustic props available to hire. Our large range includes old apple crates, oak barrels, chalkboards, vintage suitcases, rustic wheelbarrows, an old delivery bicycle plus lots of smaller items like vintage bottles, jars, jugs and pots. So whether it’s large milk churns filled with flowers or a selection of vintage tin baths to keep your drinks cool we would love to help you enhance your venue and create the perfect look and feel for your wedding. Styling and on the day venue dressing services are also available.

Mabel & Rose

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Mag’s & Tim’s Ice Cream Trike 

Mags Tims Traditional Icecream Trike logo 
Mag & Tim serve Winstone’s delicious traditional ice cream to your guests for approx 2 hours at a time to suit you, in either waffle cones or tubs and then guests can help themselves to the “Extras” table with sprinkles, sauces, flakes, choc sticks etc. 
They have been trading for about 3 years. Take a look on their Facebook page to see some of their lovely reviews.
Mags Tims Traditional ice cream trike
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Oakwood Events logo
Oakwood Events supplies stunning lighting for stylish couples. They design and install lighting schemes for barn weddings using fairy lights, festoon lights, bare bulbs, paper lanterns, chandeliers, drapes, uplighting, bunting and dance floor lighting.
Lighting is a unique addition to your wedding and can be used to highlight features like beams or stone walls, change the atmosphere between day and night or make a colour or design statement to match your theme. Oakwood Events pride themselves on top quality design, professional installation and amazing features; explore their Pinterest boards for inspiration and to see how their lighting adds wow factor to barn weddings. See your wedding in a different light!

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The Oxfordshire Photo Booth Co.

Oxfordshire Photobooth Company logo
The Oxfordshire Photobooth Company offer you the best DSLR photobooth. Our ‘open-air’ booth creates the perfect ice breaker and talking point, an easy way to get the whole family involved. The only limit to how many people can fit in to our booth is your imagination!

We offer a range of packages for a range of budgets and can tailor any of these to your requirements. Every booking receives a fully customised start screen and watermarked image with your names in your colour scheme! Our instant photo prints, social media sharing, scrap books, photo albums, backdrops and bunting give gives your special day a completely unique, bespoke touch. For more information, please get in contact via any of our social media links.

 

Oxfordshire Photobooth Co

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Papertree Design

Paper Tree Design | Logo | stationery

Paper Tree Design was created through a love of paper and a desire to produce beautiful and personal stationery and decorations. Thoughtfully designed, we focus on quality and attention to detail to make your stationery truly individual. With a background in Fashion and Textile Design, and 15 years experience in retail buying and product development Suzanne has a wealth of experience to draw on and is passionate about delivering design with little personal touches that reflect the clients loves and interests.

Living in rural Oxfordshire Suzanne cannot help but be inspired by the beauty of the natural world and the changing seasons, and can frequently be found in lanes and hedgerows with her camera and a sketchbook. Specialising in paper cutting, at Paper Tree Design we create your handcrafted wedding stationery to order. Choose to personalise a card from one of our ranges or commission a bespoke design. I am at my best working with your theme and ideas for a truly personal invitation and welcome you to come and have a chat and a cuppa in my Oxfordshire studio to discuss plans for your wedding.

Paper Tree Design | Profile | stationery twitter-1@PaperTreeOxon

facebook logo@Paper-Tree-Design

instagram logo@papertreeoxon

 

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The Pretty Cake Company

Pretty Cake Company logo

The Pretty Cake Company offers a friendly, personal and bespoke wedding cake design service to produce breath taking wedding cakes that will be remembered for years to come. Our aim is to produce a wedding cake that is individual to the bride and groom – always focusing on the attention to detail that makes all the difference. We have over 10 years of experience in designing and creating wedding cakes and work closely with numerous prestigious wedding venues in Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and The Cotswolds.  We will work with you and take your ideas and inspirations in order to create a truly memorable wedding cake. We pride ourselves on using the finest quality and freshest ingredients available.

Unlike many other cake companies, we now specialise only in wedding cakes, as this is our true passion.  Now we are able to focus on keeping up to date with current bridal trends and ensuring that our clients receive expert advice in the wedding cake field.

Clients are guaranteed a friendly, efficient service where quality is never compromised. Consultations by appointment only. We are based in Minster Lovell, Witney, West Oxfordshire and can deliver to a wide area.

pretty-cake-company

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Richard Young

Richard Young logo

Richard Young is a professional wedding magician who will amaze and amuse your guests throughout the quieter parts of your big day with his amazing close-up magic and mind reading. Magic is one of the few forms of entertainment you can book that will connect with all ages, nationalities and cultures at your wedding because everyone loves to be amazed and made to feel like a kid again. Richard’s magic will create lasting exciting memories of your wedding and create a fantastic atmosphere as he moves from group to group. Richard can perform during your drinks reception, wedding breakfast or evening reception, the choice is yours and Richard has different packages available for different size weddings and most importantly different size budgets.

Richard has been a full time professional magician for 10 years and lives in Oxfordshire, he is a full member of The Magic Circle and he performs at over 60 weddings a year so you can be assured of a top notch product that will go down an absolute storm at your wedding. You will soon see him on the brand new ITV1 prime time TV show ‘The Next Great Magician (7pm November 6th 2016 on ITV1) and he is also the headliner magician on the touring theatre show Champions of Magic. Richard is recommended by all the top wedding venues in Oxfordshire including Blenheim Palace, Le Manoir, Eynsham Hall and Caswell House.

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Rosie Red logo

I am Rosie of Rosie Red Corsetry & Couture, creating luxury bridal wear for all body types. My garments are made with the utmost of love, bespoke for you in Oxfordshire, England. Whether you’re plus size or petite, I promise you a fabulous experience from start to finish.

My growing celebrity following includes Helena Bonham Carter and Billie Piper.

I am such a romantic and a fan of love, creating your bridal gown is so much more than just a job to me. I would love you to be a Rosie Red Bride.

Every body deserves to feel beautiful ♥

Miss Deadly Red

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Twists

Twists logo

Occasion Hair and Make up Artist specialising in Bridal and Occasion Hair and Make up. Twists offer a professional and creative service throughout Oxfordshire and the Cotswold villages, in the comfort of your own home or venue.

We understand that your wedding day is one of the most important days of your life. Therefore we endeavour to ensure that your wedding hair and make up is one to be admired and remembered.

Twists

 

facebook logo@twists.witney

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Wates & Co Delicatessen

Wates & Co logo

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Look forward to seeing you on the 16th!

WANTED: beards & waves

WANTED: beards & waves

Not disguises by the seaside but some lovely models are required for a bohemian styled bridal shoot with a literature theme.

The shoot will take place at a stunning venue by the River Windrush in the beautiful Oxfordshire countryside this October half term.

This project is supporting and showcasing local, independent wedding businesses – everyone provides their services and products for free and in return gets some wonderful lifestyle shots to use at a later date. This is a collaboration of like minded people that create great things together though don’t have the budgets to produce this kind of work if they all worked independently.

The shoot will be approximately 2-3 hours in the afternoon of Tuesday 25th October (weather permitting) and will provide some fantastic lifestyle shots for your portfolio. One fitting prior to the date may be necessary. Own transport is required to Minster Lovell, Witney, OX29 0RN.

We are looking for models fitting the following description:

WAVES – Female with long blonde/brown wavy hair, approximately 20-30 years old, 170 cms tall, size 10-14

BEARDS – Male with dark hair and beard, taller than the bride, approximately 25-35 years old, 40” chest, 32” waist

If you’re available and would like to be involved in this fantastic styled bridal shoot then please email Hanami Dream

  • by Friday 14th October 2016
  • on info@www.hanamidream.co.uk
  • including a quick intro, your stats, a contact number and 2 images of yourself (1 x face shoot, 1 x full length)

For more information on the shoot take a look at Hanami Dream’s wedding blog

Wizard of Oz styled shoot toddler cast featuring Dorothy, Tin Man, Scarecrow & Lion with balloons on straw bales

Local wedding suppliers at Cogges Manor Farm Wedding Open Day

SAVE THE DATE: Cogges Manor Farm Wedding Open Day

Wedding Open Day of Cogges Manor Farm barns in WitneyI’m delighted to be supporting Cogges Manor Farm with their Wedding Open Day on Sunday 16th October 11am-3pm in Witney, Oxfordshire.

See more information at http://www.cogges.org.uk/event/cogges-wedding-open-day

Hanami Dream will also be offering a drop in wedding planning clinic on the day.

Watch out for more details coming soon.

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