7 Wedding Guest Book Ideas & Trends
There are countless hassle-free, clever ways to make your guest book reflect your personality, relationship, and wedding style.
by The Knot
Here are ten ideas for an extra-special keepsake to savour long after the party’s over.
1. Create an Heirloom
The key is to have lots of pages — allow your guests plenty of room to get mushy. One couple we know plans to bring out their guest book at their 50th anniversary party, so guests can record their thoughts in the original book. Then, the couple will start a family tradition by passing the guest book on to their children.
2. Moving Images
Appoint a guest book “captain” — someone who will drop by each table with your book to ask specifically for contributions. Have the captain approach close friends first — give them magic markers and ask them to draw pictures. Other guests will be inspired to follow their example.
3. Memory Lane
When you send invitations, include an insert asking guests to bring a picture of themselves with you (or both of you). Ask them to paste the photo into your guest book and describe the scene, or write about their favourite memory of you. In the end, you’ll travel a whirlwind path that takes you from Cub Scouts to the office Christmas party to your first concert to last year’s New Year’s bash — and all the delicious moments in between.
4. Say Cheese!
Appoint a friend or family member to snap a Polaroid of each guest arriving at your wedding. Guests can attach the pictures to a blank guest book page with a glue stick, tape, or adhesive corners (available at office-supply stores). Personalised messages can then be scrawled beside the photos.
5. Live & Uncut
Have guests express their wishes live to your videographer and forgo the whole book concept. Pros: tear-filled eyes, cute kid stuff, knee-slapping sentiments. Cons: slurred words and shy relatives.
6. Keeping the Theme
Is yours a period wedding? Use a feather quill and inkwell in lieu of pen and holder. For a beach wedding, get a guest book with a seashell motif, or have tiny shells on hand for guests to glue onto blank pages. Will your theme hone in on sports? Paste up trading cards onto the pages. Your guests’ messages will read like autographs. Will the wedding be Irish to a “T”? One word: green (the cloth cover, the pages, the ink…) and don’t forget shamrocks.
7. Make Your Own
Here’s a risk-free way to add a drop of do-it-yourself to your wedding day. Offer pages of loose stationery for your guests to personalise, and have them bound later in a beautiful book. You also can purchase an inexpensive album or scrapbook with a plain cover — decorate it with photos, postcards, drawings, or attach a blown-up copy of your invitation. For the ultimate self-made guest book, design and create the whole thing yourselves. Check out our easy-as-pie DIY Wedding Guest Book instructions for details.
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Comments (2)
makeawish75
Being a lover of “wishes”, I thought I’d share an idea from a wedding I went to recently using gorgeous little wish cards instead of the usual guest book. They had a table set up in the reception area all set up with the wedding wish cards, a vase to put them in, pens for the guests to write on them, and tea light candles everywhere. It was just beautiful! I think they got them online through “My Wish Gift” and I have to say it was just lovely… Thumbs up to whoever thought of that idea, it was so nice to see something different for a change.
DuckiStar, NSW
Your Wishes Keep Us Warm
Being a quilter, I saw online (on one of the many, many wedding blogs) about making a wedding wishes quilt, simple really
Just buy your material and a few permanent fabric markers, Pre-cut into the shapes for your quilt (i.e. Squares, rectangles, octagons) leave out on your guestbook table with a note for your plan.