It’s crazy that I’ve never written about our cookbook wedding guest book — I’d never even thought about it until Annaliese of Southern Belle in Training asked me recently if I had a post on it! For everything wedding-related I’ve covered, it seems this is one detail that fell through the cracks. Don’t worry, though, because now we’re getting into it.
OUR COOKBOOK WEDDING GUEST BOOK
Please pick a page and sign the book…and we’ll think of you every time we cook.
That’s how we framed our cookbook wedding guest book. But, why did we choose to go with a cookbook? We knew we wanted to think outside the box. A plain old guest book seemed boring and a book of our engagement photos didn’t seem right to me (though no judgement if that’s what you went with!).
We considered doing a Charlottesville coffee table book to commemorate where we got married or maybe a Washington, DC book since that’s where we live, but, eventually we landed on selecting a book we’d use more often.
Adam and I cook several nights a week. It’s something we love doing together. We try out new recipes, cook old favorites, and I absolutely love thumbing through cookbooks looking for ideas. A cookbook is something we knew we’d use. And, we thought about a few different options: maybe a Colombian or South American cookbook to go with our honeymoon or something that focused on Virginian or Texan food. But, eventually we chose a timeless cookbook…
WHY WE CHOSE MASTERING THE ART OF FRENCH COOKING
Two days after getting engaged, we skipped across the Atlantic for a trip to France (I actually thought we’d be getting engaged there, so Adam totally threw me off by proposing beforehand). It was an engagement trip, if you will.
While we were there, we did a macaron making class in Paris, which was absolutely a highlight of our trip. So, given our French engagement trip, our love of cooking together, and the fact it’s an iconic cookbok, Mastering the Art of French Cooking seemed like the logical choice for our cookbook wedding guest book.
Now, you may be wondering, how often do we reference Julia Child’s classic in the kitchen? To be honest, these recipes are HARD. We’ve just started working our way through. And, it seemed fitting that the first recipe we attempted was gnocchi and, on the gnocchi page, my father-in-law had written a note saying, “We know Heather loves gnocchi” and, yes, yes, I do.
