Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Wedding Wednesday: Thumbprint Tree

Lots of brides now days are trying to find fun and unique ideas to incorporate into their weddings. I know I sure was when I was planning mine! Instead of a traditional guest book at the wedding reception, I opted for a 'thumbprint tree'. These have gained in popularity over the last couple of years, but are still a unique spin on the old traditions of guest books or signing a picture frame mat.

This post I did over a year ago on wedding thumbprint trees is the #3 post of all time on this blog, having been viewed almost 5,000 times. Crazy! I guess these babies are popular!

There are tons of wedding thumbprint trees out there to purchase. Etsy alone has hundreds to choose from. I decided to go the cheaper DIY route and create my own! I bought a sheet of nice quality multimedia art paper from Michaels and sketched out a fun and whimsical tree. Once I got it just right, I went over the drawing using a fine tip sharpie. I customized it by drawing our initials 'engraved' in the tree trunk and drew our names and wedding date at the bottom. I found turquoise and lime green mini stamp pads from Joanns for guests to ink up their thumbs to 'leaf' a print. By the end of the night it was filled with our all 75 guests thumbprints and ready to take home to be framed!




I created a picture table that had framed wedding photos from my husband and I's families (parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents) as well as a clothesline of pictures of us growing up and throughout our relationship. I used this table for the wedding thumbprint tree. I really loved the way it all turned out. I even created a burlap banner that read 'All you need is love' and draped it across the table. (Which just so happened to be the song I walked down the aisle to!) The entire table was a great focal point and such a personal touch and I think our friends and family really liked it too!