The Wedding Guest Book

This has been an ongoing project for the last 2 months and has finally come to a close, so I thought time to write a 'quick' post...


I was commissioned to make a wedding book for my Dad & Stella's wedding, following the success of the wedding invites I produced over the Summer. I wasn't given any specific requests for the book, just something which went with the colour scheme of pearl and black and that was suitable for approximately 130 guests.
With the invites in mind, I wanted to produce something with similar aesthetics regarding the colour, imagery of the entwined hearts, and also the nature of the book - something simple, stylish and elegant.
After inquiring at Vernon Street I took some initial ideas back to my Dad and Stella; I asked on their preference between a basic hard back, rounded spine book, or a concertina book.




I took with me a basic example of the concertina style and technique I was thinking of, with just 12 pages, but to give a feel for the nature of the book.

Thankfully, they preferred the concertina; I was hoping this would be the case as it was a little more of a challenge, and the book is a much more interesting design compared to the standard rounded spine hardback. There were a few initial queries about the book though;

• They asked for the size of the book to be altered slightly so it were shorter in height, but longer in length, (more like an autograph book shape than the sample I had brought)
• They both asked about the stability of the book - as my sample was only a small number of pages and with a cheap cartridge paper, I assured them that the finished book would hold a lot more strength and look and feel more sturdy.
• The nature of the book being a concertina and having potentially two sides of writing held positive and negative points - once finished the book could be unfolded and stood up so everyone can read the messages, (on both sides if necessary), but also, would this be a problem with guests not knowing where to write, and put them off writing in case it was in the wrong place. This was something I'd have to incorporate into the design of the book to ensure didn't happen.

I returned to Vernon Street requesting paper/buckram samples and prices to give myself a range of possibilities, and also to become familiar with the different materials I would be working with. I wanted to be sure of the structure and feel of the book, so decided to make a full mock up, only difference being the paper, purely for cost purposes (cartridge for the mock up, and BFK for the final book).
Whilst making the mock up there were a few more points I had to decide upon:

• Number of pages for 130 max. guests. - I decided on around 40 full pages; giving 80 sides in total if it was necessary to use the back sides of the concertina. This meant just under 1/3 of a page per person, baring in mind most guests would be couples/families, this should work perfectly.
• Whether to include spaces for photographs; eventually decided not to include them inside the guest book, for practical reasons of where to fit them in and how. 
• Where to place the ribbons in the cover to secure the book in place - make sure they are aligned well so everything looks aesthetically pleasing, also the colour - in my interim crit, it was questioned whether the black ribbons were the best option or not; it perhaps felt slightly more 'funeral'-esque than fresh and wedding-like. The final ribbons I chose were a pearlescent off-white, which complimented the pearlescent feature on the cover.
• Trimming the pages to give a clean and neat finish really gave a much more professional feel to the book and less of a rough handfinished look - for the circumstances of this brief, everything needed to look as professional as possible!
• I also tried creating a piece to experiment with some embossing for the front cover, using the same stencil cut-out of the entwined hearts used on the wedding invites (reminder photo below).This was a real success straight into the black buckram, but I wanted to have a central square on the front of the book with a pearlescent feature, so had a re-trial and the results were exactly what I wanted! 

I had a last minute hiccup in the last stages of the final book; I managed to stick the cover and book together without placing the ribbons in between first. This resulted in a major design fault as when the book is left freestanding, it just isn't as sturdy or secure without the ribbons.
I had to do some quick fix thinking, and decided to tie some pearlescent ribbon around the front cover of the book, which then ran on the inside cover, and a second ribbon which ran through a small inscision through the back side of the cover. This was all repeated for the back of the book and eventually everything was secured in place by 2 pieces of pearlescent paper to cover the ribbon on the inside of the two covers.

Although I was completely disappointed with myself for not taking my time and paying attention to what I was doing, it resulted in me testing my design skills and knowledge of materials to know what was the best thing to do. The deciding factor was when my Dad and Stella picked up the book and they were both amazed with it, which made me happy on a design and practice achievement and also on a personal level.

I think it made a great impact on me knowing the project was for someone that I knew very well, which made it difficult in effect that I knew a lot of people that were going to view my work and so wanted it to be of a high quality; I also understood the sentiment of the occasion the book was for, which gave more pressure for me to create something absolutely perfect.
I think this is a great quality to be able to show off, that my work is not only handmade, but also incredibly thought out and passionately created. I strive to make people happy in everyday circumstances, so for this to be evident in my work and available for potential clients to see, this could be a great selling point for myself for other bespoke pieces of a similar nature to this guest book.