So many guestbook options...

I've been seeing so many creative and awesome options for guestbooks lately that I have visions of metallic pens and beautiful paper dancing in my head.
Well, maybe I'm not that crazy. But I am seeing lots of cool ideas.
My original guestbook idea involved something I saw at the bridal show I wing-woman-ed at in South Carolina: a tree. It was in a photographer's booth -- I have no idea who the photographer was, but I remember turning to see this gorgeous tree covered in orange flowers and matted photographs of a happy couple. Right then, I thought it would be super-cool to use a tree not only for a photo display, but also as a guestbook -- guests could hang shaped paper tags with their names and wishes on them on the tree (later, I learned about "wish trees" and that plenty of folks had thought of this already). My cell phone camera picture doesn't capture what I remember and instead gives it more of a "overhead flourescent grainy" feel...

Actually, I'm not as super-thrilled with this particular tree now as I was at the time. At the time, it blew my mind, man. And early on in the wedding-planning process, I learned about various types of trees appearing at weddings (craftificus MarthaStewartis) - everything from topiaries to things like the one above that aren't really "trees" at all. But that path... that path led me to fall in love with manzanita.
What is manzanita, you ask? It's a small, hearty, dense evergreen shrub that has plenty of decorative use. Especially at weddings, where brides tend to cover it in tinsel and crystals and unicorn hair and whatnot and make it look like your guests could spend time between the ceremony and reception making Tsahaylu with it.

Weddings on Pandora...

You can see these have a little more of a tree-ish look to them than the curly branches used for the tree I saw. However, the one I saw has the advantage of being much easier to put together -- manzanita has to be set in a sturdy base with some plaster of paris in order to stand up.

If I were set on a tree, I'd probably go with the manzanita just because I think they look prettier. But I'm not even so sure now that I'm set on a tree. For the number of guests we might end up having, there would be a lot of signed tags covering the tree, and I'm not sure if the product would be worth the effort. What would we do with all the tags later? Put them in a book? A jar? That would take up a lot of space, and wouldn't be too easy to look through. That's why I'm starting to lean toward more compact ideas, like books or things to hang on a wall.

Another option I love are guestbooks that double as photo albums -- either with pictures of your guests or with pictures of the couple. I've been getting Shutterfly coupons lately, and I love some of the Shutterfly albums out there that are used like this.

From Shutterfly

Or I could go with a totally different kind of tree - a 2D kind, with leaves made out of fingerprints. Bleu de toi on Etsy sells some great ones.

From Emmaline Bride

Johnny saw a signable photo mat in Michaels one day when we were there, and he really liked that idea. I like it, too -- plus there are lots of options of what to put behind the frame. A blown-up version of your invite? Big ol' wedding picture? You could even combine that with the fingerprint tree...

This one from Luster Studios looks classy.

Lots of options -- so many ones that I like! Still not sure which one I'm leaning toward. If Johnny doesn't have a particular favorite, I have a feeling it will come down to the Money + Time Investment equation. Since he's mentioned that he likes the pictureframe idea, I'm tempted to surprise him with that! We'll see...