Don Ken Gallery

Our wedding 'got blogged' again, this time from the male perspective - believe it or not I did make a point of trying to make the Rock n Roll bride entry about both of us (we wrote it together) with all the details from Dan's side too. This effect is probably best demonstrated by our guest book. All the women signed their entries from the group unit they'd arrived with - boyfriends, husbands, children etc - probably assuming they wouldn't bother to write themselves. Quite a few of the men folk were then sufficiently amused by the book to leave their own entry, typically only signed from themselves. This is quite noticeable when you flick through...

Photo by Laura Babb

Photo by Laura Babb

We almost didn't have a guest book at all. It was getting to the point of the final countdown (literally hours before leaving the house) and we hadn't thought of anything. The best I could come up with was the fingerprint tree I'd seen on some wedding blogs, but although it's a nice idea it was a bit twee for our taste. But then inspiration flopped through the letterbox, literally.

I'd been following John Kenn's blog for awhile - I think I probably came across it on Drawn! - as it's kind of impossible not to fall in love his monsters. They are scary, but there also very humorous and somehow loveable. The expressions on their faces are just so literal. You can kind of tell he produces stuff for kids, his pictures have that inexpressible Roald Dahl element that children love. Children like being scared and when you look at the monsters you involuntarily make up your own stories to match. I included one of his pictures in the mood board I made for Laura, which also caught Dan's attention. Simultaneously, in response to popular demand, Kenn's drawings were made into a book - which at the time was only available through a Danish website. Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, harnessing the power of a babel fish I managed to order that book. Sneakily, whilst Dan was in the shower one weekend morning - apparently all my best sneaking is done in that twenty minutes when Dan is in the bathroom. I also made sure it was addressed to Dan to enjoy that ultimate moment of confusion - "I don't remember ordering anything from Denmark??".

It took about ten minutes after opening before we decided to use it as our guest book. Dan cycled out and bought post-it notes and pens whilst he was collecting the bread to take down to the Farm. I love our guestbook - not only is it full of cool monster pictures, people were really inspired by it. They made up stories and poems about the pictures, drew monsters of their own.

John Kenn Mortensen's Post-it Monstre is now available with world-wide shipping. Buy it, be inspired, or at least subscribe to his blog.