Wish for a Better Guest Book
Posted by Denise on Oct 18, 2007. Filed under DIY Wedding Ideas, Real Weddings, Receptions, Stuff We Love, Trend Watch, Wedding Ideas
Comments (57), Permalink
I’ve attended two weddings this year where the bride and groom decided to move away from the traditional guest book and mix it up a bit with a Wish Tree. The Wish Tree is a Dutch wedding custom where guests are given a piece of paper, either shaped like a leaf or made of card stock. The guests write their wishes to the bride and groom and then hang it on the tree. This creates a gorgeous centerpiece and the tree is placed at the entrance to the reception to wow your guests right when they walk in. 
I got to assist in assembling a Wish Tree when I worked with Maxine Andrew of Instead of You at an event in September. I loved being a part of putting this together and seeing how it looked all aglow with the crystals sparkling and the heartfelt wishes hanging from each branch. 
…
After the wedding you can create a scrapbook with the wish cards. You could even find pictures of the guests who wrote each one and place it next to their wish.
Helpful hint: give yourself plenty of time to assemble the Wish Tree. It must be done onsite and can’t be moved once it’s assembled. The one in these photos took about two hours to complete from wrapping the crystal garland inside each hurricane to laying out the wish cards for the guests to hang. It takes some time, but the wow factor is huge.
— Denise Auerbach, Director of Vendor Sales
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Comments
Hello, what a great site full of information.
I will take time to review with soon to be wife:)west
I think the glass crystals are the best choice, but there are some pretty lousy glass crystals out there as well. The quality of the crystals at http://www.etherealDecor.com is great and the price on the long ones (39” long is the best buy).
Sorry, I did not mean to put a link to the website in there in my last post so here it is again without the link ... I think the glass crystals are the best choice, but there are some pretty lousy glass crystals out there as well. The quality of the crystals at etherealDecor.com is great and the price on the long ones (39” long is the best buy).
That is such a wonderful and oh-so-personal idea. I love anything that makes this special day more personal for the bride and groom.
hi there, love the idea and will be using this for my wedding, any ideas where i can get the wish cards from that hang on the tree ? thankyou
You can find great prices on crystal garlands for your trees and metal trees (if you don’t want to make them youself with real manzanita branches) at http://www.etherealdecor.com Great customer service.
I think this is a great idea.
I am just wondering what it says on the card for each guest to write one.
I can see the Wish part but not sure what it says under it . . . .
Please let me know.
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Thanks
Shara,
Hello! Thank you for leaving a comment on our blog about the wish tree. The printed cards that were given to the guests said “Wishes for Gina & Brad”
The cards were custom printed so really you could say anything you wanted on them. I hope that helps.
Denise
Joanna,
Hello! The wish tree cards for this wedding were done by the invitation designer. You can check and see if this is something your invitation designer could do. Another option is going to a place like Paper Source or a craft store and getting some card stock to use.
Denise
When I saw this page, I fell in love with the wishing tree and have to have it! For those of you who have put one together, approx. how much will this cost me for the entire get up? Where did you order your trees and crystals from? I wish I could just order the whole thing in this picture in a kit! Thanks so much!
I also cant wait to have this at my wedding. What I am doing is buying prefoamed terra cotta pots with moss and using curly willow, beaded garland, card stock and ribbon, all from Michael’s. It is definitly a less expensive way of the picture shown above, but pretty none the less!
For my brother’s garden wedding, we’ve decided to hang clotheslines from the trees and the guests will hang their wishes with wooden clothespins. Since it’ll be at dusk, we’ll have mason jars hanging from the trees with candles in them, too. I’m excited about it! I guess it’s a pretty inexpensive way to do it, too.
How many of the branches do you think it takes to make this display??
Using this at my wedding next month. Got a FANTASTIC deal on Manzanita branches from Manzanita Burlworks at http://www.manzanita.com/ DON’T buy from a craft site!
Woh !!! I am so excited because I’ll be celebrating my 15 year crystal anniversary and this is perfect. I love the idea since I’ve been looking around for something different.
Thank you so much for this site. I’m trying my best to do something nice and within my budget, our 1st wedding didn’t say much about us because it was done for us, something simple but we’re greateful. It’s been almost 15 years now and we’re so thankful to God that we’ve made it this far. If anyone has any other ideas for my crystal wedding anniversary please let me know.
Totally blessed,
Rosa
You can get all of the materials for this project at save-on-crafts.com. I just figured I would share that with everyone. This is what we’re using as a guestbook and I was delighted to see so many great tips here! Happy planning everyone!
P.S. We are not spending hundreds of dollars on this project.
Hi,
I love this idea and would love to incorporate into my wedding…but have a question: would you have the guests fill out the cards ahead of time and send in with the RSVP for instance, or do they fill them out at the reception and place on the tree themselves?
Thanks for the idea and your reply. Just gorgeous!
Mari
Mari,
The way I have seen it done at weddings is to have the guests fill out their wishes to the bride and groom on the wedding day. It is set up where the reception is going to be held and it takes the place of a traditional guest book. If you wanted it to be 100% complete with wishes already hanging on the tree than your idea of including in the with the invitation is a perfect. It’s your wedding, do what you want:)
Denise
Hello!
I love this idea and have gotten basically all of the supplies to make it. Only thing is i got the 1 to 2ft manzanita branches….they seem too small though… anyone know what exactly is used in this picture? thank you!!
I made this tree and it came out just beautiful. I bought my Wedding Wish Tree Tags from a wonderful lady on etsy. Her shop is http://greenacrescottage.etsy. She has so many to chose from and I picked the ones with the damask.
Does anyone have crystals or trees from their wedding that you want to get rid off? my fiance and I are on a budget and can’t afford the gorgeous crystals by Cristalier. Happy to get yours off your hands. Please email me at sarahh.sfatgmail.com
Thanks!
http://lyndiprojects.blogspot.com/2011/03/wish-tree.html?spref=fb
If you are looking for crystals for the crystal wish tree, the most beautiful crystals are at http://www.etherealdecor.com
I ordered a metal manzanita branches(trees)online at crystalweddingtrees.com (btw, unbelievable photos of wedding trees)It arrived 2 days later and I had it completely assembled in about 15 minutes. I strung the crystal strands that came with it in about another 10-15 minutes and was done. I was shocked at how pretty it looked with me just messing around with it. when I was done playing, I took it down just as fast.