Rustic Wedding Guest Book

This DIY Rustic Wedding Guest Book will have your guests talking and looks like you paid a handmade artisan big bucks for!

When I got married 13 years ago I DIY’d as much as possible. My now husband and I paid for most of our own wedding so we put my creativity to the test to help keep costs down. I made our invitations, wedding pamphlets, bouquets, and boutonnieres, to name a few. And luckily it’s inherited because my mom made my wedding dress!

If you’re like me, you’ll DIY as much as possible to save as many pennies as you can. A lot of the accessories that go along with a wedding can be made by hand at much less cost and much more creatively.

One item you can definitely DIY is the guest book and sign in table! This rustic wedding guest book can be filled with handwritten messages on wood slices and hung in the new couples home after the wedding as memories for years to come. It looks like something you would spend big bucks on from a handmade artisan, but you can make it for ~$35!

Supplies:
Faux succulents
Twine
Scrapbook paper
Small wood slices
Doilies
Lace
Wood heart pallet (Old Time Pottery)

If you turn the pallet heart over to the back you will see a recessed space. This is actually the side of the pallet we will be working with. It will create a perfect shadowbox!

First things first, unscrew the hanger. We’ll cover the hole up shortly.

We are going to cover the “shadowbox” with scrapbook paper so we need to make it “see through” which we are going to do by covering the paper in small 1/2″ circles. The wood slices that are going to go in the shadowbox are pretty small (or I would have covered the pallet with chicken wire) but will not slip through 1/2″ holes. This can be achieved with a die cut machine, which is what I used, or you can find a 1/2″ circle punch that is not restricted to the edge of paper.

Create rows of 1/2″ circles all over a sheet of 12×12 scrapbook paper.

Place the paper face down on your work surface. Place the pallet face down on top of the scrapbook paper and trace the edge with a pencil.

Cut out the heart approximately 1/2″ inside the line you traced. Center it on the back of the pallet and glue down the edge, except for one corner of the heart. Leave this part loose so that the wood slices can be slipped inside. It can be glued down after the wedding.

Use a hot glue gun to add lace around the edge of the paper to hide it. Be sure to not glue down the corner that is going to stay open.

Trim the succulent stems to your desired length. Wrap ends with twine, hot gluing as you go. Hot glue and tie together the two succulents and wrap in lace. Glue to the side of the pallet.

Set up a bowl or basket for the wood slices and thin-tip Sharpies to write on them. Decorate the basket with more scrapbook paper. Add a pot of real succulents to dress up the table. The greeting is from the same scrapbook paper back as the other papers. I simply mounted it on a Popsicle stick and stuck it in the flower pot.

As guests sign their names on the wood slices, the guest book attendant can slip them into the shadowbox.

While the newlyweds are on their honeymoon have someone finish gluing down the paper and lace to complete the guest book.

This rustic wedding guest book will become a special keepsake that the new couple can hang in their new home.

 

Linking up to Flamingo Toes, Today’s Creative Blog, Tidymom, My Repurposed Life,
Tatertots & Jello, and other great parties found on my party page.