Wedding Advice – Here Comes the Blog

Having a green wedding or want to break from the traditional guest book? Consider a wishing tree...one of the hottest alternatives to guest books. Wishing trees a great way to add a unique touch to your wedding. The basic principle is for guests to leave their well-wishes for the couple on small hang tags that they fill out and then hang on the "tree". The hang tags can be square or shaped (e.g. leaf-shaped for fall weddings). Normally the tree itself consists of some branches that are adorned with flowers, crystal garlands or whatever embellishments you want to use to tie in with your theme. If you are fortunate enough to get married in the Spring, you could simply buy magnolia branches with beautiful pink or white saucer cup flowers or branches covered in cherry blossoms. Other times of the year, simply use glass vases filled with colored marbles to hold branches in place (paint them any color you would like) and then attach silk or real flowers that coordinate with your color scheme.

This Wishing Tree photo (from the Wedding Star catalog) shows willow branches that are adorned with orchid flowers. The couple bought square floral place card tags and added simple pink ribbons and a crystal heart confetti to add some sparkle. They placed the hang tags along with a pen on a lovely tray and then set up a tent card asking their guests to "Please Leave Your Wishes on the Tree"....the tent card also thanked the guests for sharing in their special day. Placing a gorgeous decorated wishing tree near the entrance of the reception will get oohs and aahs from your guests. After the wedding, you can create a lovely scrapbook using the cards that guests left on the tree.

TIP - Be sure to do all of the wishing tag assembly prior to the big day. It can take a bit of time to punch gift tags, add ribbon, and add other embellishments. Also at the reception, be sure to have a good place to set-up the wishing tree because once it is set-up and the guests start hanging on their wish tags, the tree can not be moved easily.

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