In my last post, I talked about the memory book The Backyard Groom's grandma bought us. It doubles as a guestbook, and honestly, I hadn't given very much consideration to a guestbook before receiving that gift. I still want to use it because I know those memory books make such neat keepsakes. We can have people sign it before the ceremony even begins, right when they enter The Backyard.
As film fans and photographers, the walls of our apartment bear no shortage of framed photos and movie posters. But the walls of our bedroom are pretty dull. We've got a couple of framed photos, and that's it. Last night I got an idea. Wouldn't it be cool to have something from our wedding that would double as art? My parents have their wedding certificate framed in their bedroom, but certificates certainly looked cooler and more personalized back then than they do now in the age of computers and laser printers.
So what if in addition to the memory book that guests sign before the ceremony, we have a different thing for them to sign before dinner or during the reception. Is that overkill? With a big wedding, I think it might be, but with 20 guests, I feel like it's doable.
This morning I looked for different options. The first one is one that I've seen at several weddings - the photo mat signing. Here is a good example:
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We really have a lot of photos of the two of us around the house, so I'm not totally crazy about this idea. I know I'll want some of our wedding and engagement photos framed, but I think I'd like something different.
Then I started thinking about other things we could mat and frame. This led me to think about our invitations, which I am giddily excited about (and promise to show real photos of soon!). I thought we could mat our invite and have people sign around it. Then when I mentioned this to Non-Bridesmaid C., the invite designer herself, she suggested printing out a bigger version of the invite and matting that. I searched Flickr for ideas and saw this cool poster where the couple were having people sign directly on it, like a concert or movie poster or something.
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I really like this idea. I think it would fit with everything else in our apartment and be a fun way to remember the day. Plus the ever present invitation would mean The Backyard Groom would have no excuse for ever forgetting our anniversary!
I kept searching online to find other ideas of guestbooks that double as wall art. Then I came across a beautifully romantic idea in the Quaker marriage certificate. In Quaker Weddings (scroll down to 'law' to read about it), the vows are hand lettered (usually in calligraphy) onto a piece of nice paper and then the piece of paper is signed by the bride, groom and everyone in attendance as a demonstration of their support for the marriage. Even the words describing the certificate makes me all swoony, but look at the photo of one below (and preferably open it in a new tab or window so you can read the text) and try not to swoon yourself:
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I really like both ideas. I'm not sure how expensive it would be obtain one of these Quaker marriage certificates, so I'll have to look into that.
Maybe we just need more wall space...
What do you think of these options? Are you turning any aspect of your wedding into a piece of art?
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