The DIY Wedding Tree

What makes a wedding day so special is is all the warm love and best wishes and happiness that make the air feel electric. You can’t capture the air from your wedding day in a pickle jar but there are lots of ways to savour and keep those memories. Photographs, small mementos, and of course, asking your guests to record all their feelings in a guest book. Okay so you get that I like them. But what makes me sad is the idea that you have to tuck that book onto a shelf when you might just be the type of person who would rather hang it on your wall as a subtle reminder of the love you have in your life.

You know exactly what’s coming next – I pose a problem and up pops a solution! Tara Whittaker, a Calgary wedding photographer, worked on a styled shoot last October for a vintage mountain themed wedding – perfect for a wedding in Calgary, or at least a Calgary Bride. She had the pleasure of working with some seriously talented vendors and together, they put together something pretty breathless.

One part of the day was this fantastic little project, a DIY Wedding Tree Guest Book. Tara found a beautiful way to invite wedding guests to express themselves with more than just a heartfelt note. A Wedding Tree really gives guests a chance to make their mark on your wedding day by asking them to leave a finger print as a leaf on the tree and write their names beside it. Adorable!

Tara makes a great point that keeping the tree as a framed piece of artwork for your home is a perfect way to hold those memories close. What I love as well as this is a project that can go into the night – guests can sign as soon as they arrive,after the ceremony or during the wedding reception. The frame you choose will have a lot to do with the feel of the project or the design scheme of your home – a white, distressed frame, a royal blue frame, wood frame, a wrought iron frame, a thick frame or a thin frame, your project will be unique no matter what.

As far as the actual DIY part of it – the drawing – it wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t a home run either. To make my own, I followed these great steps for artists of all “abilities” (as in I have none) and this is how it turned out. Do you see how much I love you? That I would embarrass myself and post my own hack job sketch of a tree trunk. And I have a BFA.

So it’s not hard if you some relative skills but because Tara and her graphic designer Nicole love us so so much, they gave us a free, downloadable template for you print off and make your own Wedding Tree! This is an awesome project for a bridal shower or a rehearsal dinner, so make it your own!