Gallery of Creative Wedding Wishes

A gallery of unique and creative wedding wishes provides inspiration and ideas for memorializing your special day. A wedding wish book can easily replace a traditional guest book for a unique and personal touch.

The guest book is a time honored tradition where guests attending the wedding can sign their names and the bride and groom have a sweet memory of all those who attended their special day. For a new take on the standard guest book, however, couples can opt for something that offers guests a special way to sign in and offer best wishes, like this wedding envelope guest book.

Each guest has the chance to personalize their congrats in a small private card. One wish to consider using for this style of guest book is "May your future 'open up' for you in more ways than one."

Rather than having a guest book, consider having a wishing tree for guests to hang their wishes on for you. Stand a multi-branched tree on a table and provide gift tags, ribbons, and pens for guests. Let them inscribe their well wishes and tie them to the branches of the tree to display. Guests might write a sentiment like "May your future be as gentle as the wind blowing through the branches of life's tree."

If you're wondering what to engrave or inscribe onto a keepsake for the happy couple, consider a saying such as this one by anonymous, "Sometimes in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives us a fairy tale."

Another creative way to have guests sign in and offer brief wedding wishes is with items like a picture frame with engravable photo mat. Guests will have fun signing the mat and the bride and groom are left with a very special keepsake. Some may even include an additional message like "Picture yourselves in a long and happy marriage" before signing their names.

Other items that can be engraved with special pens in lieu of a guest book include platters, trays, and vases.

When adding "congratulations" to a store-bought card doesn't feel quite right, consider creating your own card. A handcrafted or artistic card and a simple sentence or two of how much happiness you wish the couple is one way to make your sentiments a bit more special. One to add to a homemade card might be "Wishing you as happy a future as you can create together."

Whether you are unable to make it to the wedding itself, or are just a close friend or family member, creating wedding wishes via audio or video can be a fun and memorable way to wish the new couple well. Share a few special words, a special story, quote a poem or song lyrics that have special meaning, or even offer a humorous wedding anecdote (as long as humor is tasteful and inoffensive it can be appropriate). One wedding wish for this style of congratulations might be "As you record the memories of your life together, don't forget the smaller moments."

On an audio CD, a few special words and a compilation of fun romantic songs can be a unique way to congratulate the couple.

Rather than have guests simply sign their names in a book, consider having an instant photo booth instead. Put some chalkboard signs and several colors of chalk nearby. Let guests write their wishes on the chalkboard. An example of a wish would be "We picture you as happy in the future as you are today." After photographing themselves holding it, guests can place their printed photos in a book for you to keep.

A fun way to offer your wedding wishes and combine them with a gift is by offering a basket or large box with a variety of gifts and a small note attached to each of them. Pick a theme, such as wishes for romance, and include an item and a romantic suggestion with each gift. For example, one note might state: "Take your spouse for an impromptu picnic", and the gift might be a special picnic blanket, a wine opener, or CD of romantic music.

Don't forget to write a special wedding wish to accompany the entire basket on the wedding day, like "Wishing you a lifetime as romantic as your day today."

Rather than just offer a one time congratulations, make your wedding wishes last all year long. Each month in their first year of marriage, send the new couple a special gift and a small note. The note might say something like "Don't forget to count the smaller milestones in your life together."

The monthly gifts can be based on the couple's hobbies, seasons, or another theme. For example, send a package of gourmet hot chocolate in January or a gift certificate to a favorite ice cream parlour in July. Your thoughts will be with the new couple all year long, and might just give them a great reason to spend time together and stay connected once the honeymoon period is over.

Another quote that is perfect for inscribing on a gift meant to convey well wishes is this one by Kahlil Gibran, "Marriage is the golden ring in a chain whose beginning is a glance and whose ending is Eternity."

What better way to let the guests pass along their well wishes than with a wishing well. Set up a small wishing well on a table and place some paper and pens nearby for guests to write messages like "May your wishes for one another come true." Let guests fill out their wish cards for the couple and drop them into the well's bucket to be retrieved and read later.

Horseshoes are a traditional wedding gift synomymous with luck. Engrave your heartfelt wishes, a quote or saying onto the horseshoe, along with the date of the wedding or the couple's names. A saying to include on the horseshoe might be "Create and capture your own luck for a beautiful future." Encourage them to hang the horseshoe above the doorway of their home for luck.

If you have a fountain, wishing well, wishing vase or other vessel you can collect messages in, consider having the guests right out a single word as a wish on a crystal "rock" to place in the recepticle. Have some fast-drying paint pens handy so they can inscribe their message and decorate the crystal before dropping it into place. Short words to consider writing include:

• Luck
• Love
• Happiness
• Beauty
• Life
• Future
• Romance

The lovespoon or lucky spoon was once a popular wedding gift used to pass along wishes such as luck, health, and wealth to the newly married couple. While a traditional lovespoon was carved with images like horseshoes, hearts and locks, any wooden spoon carved with your well wishes and wrapped up lovingly will do. Be sure to add a note with a message like "Dish up some happiness for a long life together."

For creative couples, consider embroidering this saying by Voltaire onto a quilt, wall hanging or pillow to present to the couple as your wish for them, "Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination."

To offer creative wedding wishes to the new couple, you may only have to turn to whatever unique talents and skills you possess. Are you well-known for your cooking or baking talents? Express your wishes via a recipe card and offer a recipe for happy marriage. Great at photography? Create a mini photo collage card to congratulate them in a unique way. Have a knack for words? Write a short poem to share your love. Highlight the original gift idea with a wedding wish that follow the theme, like "May you have a marriage as personal and unique as you are."

Whether you're the bride or groom looking for unique alternatives to wedding guest books or a guest who wants to express wedding wishes to the couple, these creative ideas will help you share wishes on the big day.