#MarriedMaitlands: Guest Book & Place Your Bets

The wedding guest book has really taken on a life of its own over the past few years.  I always enjoy seeing the creative ways couples decide to capture the names of those that shared in celebrating their special day.  We thought about so many different things when it came to a guest book, but in the end we knew it was best to keep it fairly simple.

Since we took our engagement photos so late in the wedding planning process and hadn't gotten the chance to show them off, our guest book provided a great opportunity to allow guests to view them.  I did get a little creative by turning the guest book into a calendar and asking everyone to sign their name on their birth date though.  Anyone that knows me AT ALL knows that I love birthdays.  We've had a lot of fun checking out the birthdays each month as we use the calendar this year, too!

And speaking of birthdays, one of our guests had a really special one - his 30th! - on our wedding day.  So I did what any birthday loving bride would do...and brought him out his own special cupcake!  We even played Stevie Wonder's Happy Birthday song and everything.  It was awesome!

Sticking with our all things horses reception theme, we asked guests to "Place Your Bets" as they arrived at the wedding venue as well.  The lovely Erin from Designs by Erin helped us with this one!  And they turned out amazing!!  It was so fun to see what everyone guessed!  Here are the results:

When will we buy first home?

Most people said 2015 (21% - all of which will be disappointed), 2016 (46%), or 2017 (16%).

Where will first home be located?

This one had the most interesting responses:
New York - 26%
Long Island (specifically) - 21%
Kentucky - 12%
New Jersey - 11%
Washington DC - 11%
Outside of NY - 20%
Perhaps Chicago, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Columbus, Charlotte, Denver, Vermont, or Virginia maybe.

When will first child be born?

The majority said 2016 (48%) or 2017 (29%).

How many children total?

Most people said either two (54%) or three (29%).

What gender(s)?

The ideal one of each came out on top at 38%.
All boys (19%) easily topped all girls (9%).
Two boys and one girl (21%) stayed a little more even with two girls and one boy (14%).

It will be great to look back at all of these cards when each of the events occur and see who made the closest bet!  Maybe they'll even win a prize of some sort!

We had two other items on the table that held our guest book and Place Your Bets cards.  One was an advice book.  It had been at all of our wedding events (engagement party, bachelorette weekend, bridal shower, and rehearsal dinner) so we wanted to make sure it made the rounds at the actual wedding as well.  We plan to look back on all the advice on our anniversary each year!

The last item on that table was our card box.  I wanted to find something that fit in with our A + C theme, but that was also reusable in the future.  We haven't decided exactly how we'll use the box going forward, but my wheels are turning.

What is the most creative guest book you have ever seen at a wedding? 

Andrea :)