DIY Vintage Wedding Book

Our next entry was submitted by Maegan, who made a DIY Vintage Weeding Book. She reused a hardcover from old book to create a beautiful keepsake. She also sent us step by step instructions on how to bind blank pages and turn into this precious guestbook!

From Maegan:
This book would replace the traditional sign in guest book. Ideally it would be available for guests to write in during the entirety of the wedding activities. The idea is to have more words and meaning to your guest book than a person’s signature alone would give. It would also give the bride and groom something to read and possibly learn new things about each other. And once pictures are inserted, it can be a perfect recap of the wedding.

What you’ll need:

– old hardback book with a cool cover
– Xacto knife
– book binding, linen hanging, or masking tape
– paper (for interior pages of book)
– one piece of cardstock
– paper trimmer
– sewing machine
– hot glue
– paintbrush
– mod podge
– alphabet stamps or any other embellishments you want

Instructions: (I included all step by step images that follow her instructions. A little lengthy, but very helpful!)

Step 1: Using your Xacto knife, CAREFULLY cut the cover off the interior pages of the book. (After removing my pages I saw that the spine of my book needed to be reinforced. I used linen hanging tape because that is what I had. Book binding tape would also work. Or even masking tape- just something to give the spine a little more support.)

Step 2: Measure the interior of your book and cut your cardstock slightly smaller.

Step 3: On your cardstock, make a mark at the center. Then measure the spine from your book cover. Draw where the spine will be on your cardstock.

Step 4: Measure and divide your spine in equal sections. Draw vertical lines to mark where your signatures (or interior folded pages) will go. I decided to make 4 signatures.

Step 5: Measure and cut your interior pages slightly smaller than your piece of cardstock. I used 10 pages per signature. My paper was thinner than regular paper, so if I were using regular printer paper I would use no more than 8 sheets per signature. Fold each stack of paper in half to create your signature. It doesn’t matter in the edges are not completely lined up.

Step 6: Take your first signature (unfolded) and line it up with the first line that you drew on your piece of cardstock. Hold in place with binder clips, paper clips, clothes pins…whatever you have. Now sew SLOWLY down the fold of your signature. Repeat until all signatures are sewn in.

See Also

A Vibrant Destination Wedding on Kona Beach in Blue & Gold

Step 7: Hot glue the outside spine of the cardstock to the interior spine of your hardback.

Step 8: Brush Mod Podge onto the back of the cardstock and adhere to the vintage book. Hold in place with clips or pins. Let dry overnight.

Step 9: Your interior pages will most likely be sticking out of your book. Take a straight edge (I used a ruler) and tear the excess paper off. This will create raw edges which will add to the character of the book.

Step 10: Take your alphabet stamps and stamp the bride and groom’s name on the first page. Randomly pick pages throughout the book to stamp “save for photo.” This, of course, will be where you will place your pictures after the wedding.

Step 11: Embellish more if you would like. I chose to leave the cover plain. You could also ink the edges of your pages to “add age” to my pages. The possibilities are endless!

Step 12: Set out at wedding and let guests write away! You can place polaroids at the wedding or insert prints once you receive professional photos.