Tara Whittaker Photography

Back in the fall, I collaborated with a great group of vendors on a shoot filled with vintage mountain wedding inspiration. One of the ideas we incorporated into the shoot was a “Wedding Tree” which serves as your wedding guest book. The tree’s leaves are formed by the fingerprints of each of your guests. Today I’m going to talk about how you can take this idea and make it your own.

We started with a tree trunk which was drawn freehand with colored pencils on an 11” by 14” piece of sketch paper. Our blank tree was created with plenty of spots for guests to place their leaf/fingerprint. We decided to pre-write the guest names at the end of the branches as an extension of the branch. We used a Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker for this. Guests would then look for their name and stamp on that spot as a way of identifying who belongs to each fingerprint. Having the names written in is completely optional. Your tree could be fingerprints only.

Nicole, our talented graphic artist on this project, created a “Wedding Tree” sign to be placed at the table where the guests sign in as a way of introducing the idea.

When guests arrive at your wedding reception, they simply add their fingerprints to the tree. We used Color Box Cat’s Eye stamp pads (purchased at Michaels) in a selection of fall colors because it fit with our overall color scheme. It would be a good idea to have hand wipes available to your guests for cleaning their fingers after stamping.

After your wedding, the tree serves as a colorful reminder of the people that supported you on your wedding day. Perhaps it could be framed and used as an art piece in your home together.

Thanks to my friend Nicole Westerlund who created the tree trunk for us and helped bring the idea to life. Florals in these images were courtesy of Sarah Mayerson Design.