A handmade wedding guest book commission

For many people, their wedding guest book is a treasured item – an opportunity to look back on their big day through the eyes of their most favourite people.

As a concept they’ve been around a long time – some say since the Victorian era, some say even longer than that, but all agree that they served as formal records of witnesses and as a sign of status. These days they tend to be where your Granny tells you how brilliant you are and your best mate draws drunken pictures as a means of expressing their love (maybe that’s just me).

Either way, they are a great opportunity to reflect the theme and style of your wedding, and I was delighted to be asked to help create this one for a special outdoor civil partnership. The couple in question knew what colours and style they wanted – green was central, and the groom had designed their invites, which included the simple circular identifier seen here on the book cover. Working with them, I was able to source this beautiful olive green Lokta paper and matching pale green Japanese silk book cloth for the spine, both of which complemented the endpapers (made from GF Smith Colorplan in mid-green) and ribbon. The text block (the internal pages of the book) were made in Munken Pure – Smooth Ivory paper, which is beautifully smooth to write on in pen or pencil.

The couple also wanted a book that would lie completely flat, so I used Coptic stitch to bind the text block before encasing it. Coptic stitch is beautiful but means there is more ‘movement’ in the book because of the typically exposed spine. Combining Coptic stitch with an encase spine gives the book a bit more protection, but does mean that when the book is open the internal seams are a bit more obvious.

If you’re interested in a handmade guest book for your wedding, please get in touch.