When I was planning my wedding I had fifty bazillion decisions to make (yes that’s a real number… I counted). What color napkins should I pick? What bridesmaids dresses would work for ALL of my girls… and be in budget? Could the best man wear converse (NO!)… It took a while to work through the staggering amount of fluff to decide every single little detail. If you are a bride (or have ever been a bride, holla!) then you know what I’m talking about! It’s enough to make you want to scream!
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The one decision I didn’t have to work to hard on was my guest book. I knew that I didn’t want your typical paper bound book filled with signatures. I was afraid that it would get stuck on a shelf in the back of a closet somewhere, collecting dust… completely forgotten about. I didn’t want my memories to be dusty! I wanted something that would be seen everyday… out in the open… not just in plain sight but part of the decor!
I love antiques, all things blue and traveling around the globe… so when I found the idea of using non-traditional items for a guest book I knew immediately what I wanted to use. A globe. A REALLY big globe. Not a teeny tiny globe that my guests would have to fight over real-estate on but a big honking one that would blend into my decor at home… while standing out. I didn’t want it to be forgotten!
My mom and I looked around for a while trying to find the perfect globe… until one day I got this picture:
It’s large (my mom had to have help to carry it out of the store), tealy blue (so it goes with my color scheme)(yes tealy is a word…) and the base isn’t make out of weird wood (read as: easily painted silver!). It seemed like the perfect globe! Mom took it home and the next time I made the trip to Alabama we fixed her up.
The only downside of using a globe as a guest book is that the surface is slick… read as: not good for signing. Plus the black writing for all of the countries and oceans would be hard to read peoples signatures over. So we decided to do what any rational bride and mother-of-the-bride would do… we painted it.
Using a bit of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Paris Grey we gave the entire globe a light wash. All this means is that we mixed a tiny bit of water with a tiny bit of paint and put on LIGHT layers. We wanted a slight grey sheen to the top of the globe so that the surface would be easier to write on… but we didn’t want a solid grey globe. The point of the globe was that it was a GLOBE… not a giant grey orb. We painted the base with a solid paris grey mixture.
I was worried about the whole painting the globe thing (it was so pretty! I didn’t want to screw it up!) but it turned out so good! Even my little brother looked at it when he got home that night, screwed up his face in that way boys get when they’re thinking and went “It looks good, I think this will be easier to sign then before”. Which was impressive since he knew nothing of my internal should-I-paint-my-globe-or-not-list-of-pros-and-cons-debate. He (of course) had been tuning out wedding talk for months at this point.
It looked amazing at the wedding! I am so glad that we went with a globe instead of a traditional guest book!
As good as it looked at the wedding? It looks even better in our living room! I love walking past it every day and seeing where people signed… I’m pretty sure my brother is Antarctica.
Linking up with: Tatertots and Jello & To Travel and Beyond
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This is so clever. We had guest from all over the globe. This would have been perfect.
That would be fun… Then you could see where everyone traveled from! Thanks for stopping by Shonda!
Awsome idea! This is such a unique and outstanding idea! It is neat to look at the glob and try to find different signatures! Thanks for sharing! So cool!
You’re so sweet! It’s a fun little treasure hunt to see where everyone signed… And who was adventurous to sign somewhere other than the U.S.!
What a very cool idea! We had a picture frame at ours and people signed the matte around the picture. It hangs in our living room in a very prominent spot and I still smile every time I look at it. Even the kids’ signatures and scribbles that stressed me out at the time, heehee.
I love that idea! Luckily we didn’t have any messy signatures or I would have been stressed too… It’s funny how what stresses us out at the time doesn’t matter years later!
What a great idea! It’s so original and a fun way to honor your guests and keep the memories alive.
I agree Michele, I love looking at it and remembering! It’s such a fun piece of our living room!
This is such a cool idea! I’m getting married in November and still trying to decide what to do for my guestbook. I’ll definitely keep this in mind! Thanks for sharing 🙂
xoxoxo,
Kayla
Congrats Kayla! That’s such a fun (and stressful) time…mid you don’t love the globe think about what’s important to you and your fiancé! My idea is That anything can be a guest book!
NEAT! This is the coolest idea I have ever seen for a guest book! So creative and fun! It is going to be a great decoration and conversation piece! Thanks for sharing! Have an awesome weekend!
Thanks Amanda! We think it’s pretty cool too! I love when people ask about it!
What a unique idea!
Thanks Tayler… We love it!
I love this idea! Wish I would have thought of this before I married!
Haha! I feel like I will be saying that for the rest of my life… so many ideas! Every time I say “I wish I would have done that for our wedding” my hubby says “that’s what we’ll do for our golden wedding anniversary!” Haha!
This is an AMAZING idea!! I love the way the globe looks with the chalk paint over it, I may take this idea in the future for one of my clients.
Thanks for linking up with us!
I’m glad you like it Macy! Any client to use this would be a lucky gal… Not that I’m biased or anything! Thanks for the fabulous wedding linky party!
This is a fantastic idea!! Very fun! Looks like it turned out perfectly!
Thanks Andrea! It turned out exactly as I had hoped!
That globe is an AMAZING idea for a guest book!! I definitely need to share that with one of my friends who just got engaged 🙂 Thanks for linking up with us this week!
Thanks for hosting! I saw the globe idea somewhere (pinterest?) and LOVED it! Surprisingly I didn’t already have a globe in our home so I knew it would be the perfect addition! Hopefully your friend likes the idea… I’m working on taking over the wedding industry one globe at a time. 😉
Thank you for the rundown of how to make the globe “writeable.” I’m getting married on the other side of the country so trying not to haul a globe on the plane each way. My in-laws-to-be live in the place where we’re getting married so I can just have a globe shipped to them. I’m looking on Amazon and Wayfair at globes and they seem to only go up to 12″ diameter unless they are inflatable or insanely expensive. Any idea how giant your globe is? Just trying to make sure there’s plenty of space to write!
Thanks!
Hi Jenny! I had the exact same problems you are currently having… my mom bought my globe and had to have it shipped to Colorado for the wedding! I’m not sure how big my globe is exactly (and it’s packed in the move or I would measure it for you!) but it’s defenitely bigger then 12″… I would guess 20″? If I tried to give it a big bear hug my arms would just barely fit all the way around it. My mom found it at an antique store for about $50… I was worried about having plenty of space to write but in the end I had way more space then I needed! I had about 100 guests so that gives you an idea. If you have any more questions feel free to ask! P.S. you should send me a picture of your globe when it’s done… I’d love to see!
Betsy
Love this idea! Looking at doing this for my wedding in may. What size globe did you use? I want to make sure everyone has room to sign
It’s about 1.5 to 2 feet from one pole to the other… it’s a big globe and I had tons of places for people to sign left over! Good luck!
Thank you!
Love this! I’m going to do this but I have one concern. What kind of pen did you use so that smearing didn’t happen? I stress about smearing. I know so silly.
Lori, We used thin sharpies… didn’t have any problem! I actually have a post on how I made them! https://happilyeverafteretc.com/how-to-make-a-fancy-feather-pen/