Thumb Painting

So, the past couple of days have been a little crazy. Josh just started a new job (yay!) yesterday and we got to spend the past weekend together for the first time since I've moved here. We used the time to relax and nail down some little details that have been driving me crazy for a few days. One of the things we finally got out of the way was opening up our guest book.
Before I get into the guest book itself, I have to say that I absolutely love art. Josh and I have slowly been collecting prints that we both love and displaying them in our home. I'm not talking about reproductions of Van Gogh's Starry Night or anything, it's mostly stuff like this:

Yes, that is Hagrid and Harry, by the very talented Scott C

I think it's important to mention the whole art aspect because it's been a pretty big factor in determining what we want the wedding to look like. With almost everything we've purchased so far, the question has been, "will this ever see the light of day again?" We've been pretty careful to only choose things that we'll be displaying in our home for years and years. 

Oh, and you know what else is important to mention when I talk about our guest book? I don't like these:

No. Just no. That's all.

While I loved the idea of a guest book, I just couldn't picture buying one. All of them seem to have A LOT of pages, and what if your guest list is pretty small? Three or four pages will be filled with the names of your guests, and then there's just a ton of blank spaces left. Plus, where do people put these after the wedding? I may be wrong, but I don't think that there are many people that proudly display their guest books in their house long after the wedding's over. 

I loved the fingerprint guest books that I started seeing on wedding blogs, and I initially wanted a tree. Then, I found Bleu de Toi on Etsy. Hilary and Josh have mastered the art of turning guest books into, well...ART. I knew once I saw their shop that I would totally hang any of their guest "books" in our living room. 

I loved the floating car...

...and the flying people...

...but REALLY. We're doing an Up themed wedding, so this was absolutely perfect:

Because I love it so much and I've heard horror stories about guests not signing the guest book at weddings, Josh and I have decided that ours will be making a special guest appearance at our rehearsal dinner so that our family members and friends can add their thumbprints. We're hoping that this will also encourage people to talk the guest book up at the reception so that we won't be left with a sad-looking bunch of balloons. We received our guest book from Bleu de Toi about a month ago, but we've just taken it out of it's packaging and laid it out under some heavy books to flatten out before we frame it.

I am so looking forward to hanging this in a gallery arrangement in our house with our engagement and wedding pictures! 

Are you doing a different kind of guest book too, or are you skipping it altogether?