Wood Wedding Guestbook

While traditionally couples had to rely on a small little book to keep a list of who attended their wedding ceremony, today’s couples have a myriad of choices. One such choice that is not necessarily so small is a burned wood signature wedding guestbook. This can be anything from a wooden plaque to a breakfast/dining table. Most couples traditional wedding guestbook ends up in a storage box or in a drawer somewhere. This wooden alternative wedding guestbook will be, not only displayed, but can be useful in your home as well.

To create your burned wood signature alternative wedding guestbook you first need to decide what object you would like to have signed. Some ideas for you to think about would be a plaque, wooden serving tray, breakfast/dining table, or other furniture. However, you can use any wooden object as your guestbook as long as it has some relatively flat surfaces for signing, and has enough room for all your guests signatures. Preferably you should use an item that is unfinished bare wood, meaning it does not have a paint or stain already applied to it.

Set this item up on a table at the entrance to your wedding hall with a person dedicated to helping guests get their signature and best wishes (should you want them) onto the object. For signing you have two choices. You can have the guests sign in pen and then later you can go over their signatures with wood burning tools yourself (this is safest should there be a lot of children at your wedding) or you can have your guests burn their own signatures in. Letting your guests do it themselves is more dangerous and more time consuming (for them) but is also a memorable experience for them and will save you a lot of burning afterwards.

To finish the piece you can leave it as is, apply a light stain to it, lacquer/varnish it, or stain and lacquer it. If you choose to stain it I suggest you get a second piece or in the case of larger objects a sampling of the same wood. On this second piece you should burn some test signatures in it and then apply your stain. Some of the darker stains may make it difficult to see the signatures, which is fine if you like it but it’s best to see what it will look like before you make it permanent. If you use lacquer or varnish make sure that it is actually clear so it doesn’t hamper the view of the signatures. By no means should you use a paint to finish the piece. Painting over the signatures will cover them up and destroy your beautiful wooden alternative wedding guestbook.

If you like this alternative wedding guestbook idea but aren’t sure if it’s quite what you want why not read our list of alternative wedding guestbook ideas.