Who's having a guest book?

We're having a finger print tree as it ties in with our woodland feel :-)

We are not having one as I am assuming people will give us cards with messages, plus they don't tend to get filled in/they get forgotten. Your idea looks cute but to be honest I think the more complicated you make it the less likely it is that your guests will use it.

That's a fair point foo, I didn't think about that! Maybe I'll keep looking for different but easy ideas!

We're having a fingerprint tree - well kind of, it will have little stamp pads for the 'leaves'. If we have a guest book it will gather dust somewhere whereas this can be framed and put on the wall.

I went to a wedding recently and didn't see the guest book until I was on my way out of the room where we had the wedding breakfast, so I'll be asking my coordinator to help me bring it to people's attention. I'm thinking of having it nearby for the welcome drinks rather than just in the main room.

We're going to have a wedding wish tree. I'm planning on putting some tags and pens dotted about on tables and get OH to mention it in his speech. Hopefully it'll look nice with the tree decorated with tags from all our guests. Then after the day I will keep the tags in a memory box and plant the tree in our garden for us to enjoy forever! I'm thinking of a magnolia or cherry blossom tree but I'm going to go and look once the leaves have come through so we have a better idea of what it'll look like when not in bloom as unfortunately there aren't many trees which bloom in August.

Not that it's what I'm doing.... lol..... but I think I like the sound of something I can fill in whilst at the wedding breakfast.

I would DEFINITELY write something whilst sitting at the table between courses, if provided with the means and a pen.

At other times - seeking out the book etc - it can be a bit of a faff, and I sometimes forget. I always intend to fill it in, but always leave it til later on, as I don't want to decide what to write until I have 'experienced' the wedding. Not a problem if you just want to write a 'best wishes for your future' style message, but it doesn't quite feel right if you also want to say how much you've enjoyed their wedding and what particular 'favourite memory' you will take away from it etc. If I sound like I over-think my messages in guest books, yes, that'd be me. But I'm the type who still sends Christmas cards and writes a proper personal message in each one too!

I've got one because it was made for me by my friend who can't be there ☹️ its a work of art and I will be insisting it is filled in before our guests leave the reception!

We're having a photo booth that supplies a guest book but OH is also making a plain canvas with our names in the middle and people can write messages on it that way we can hang it on the wall as a reminder of our day xx

We're not having a guest book. Instead, we're going to get everyone to sign a piece of jenga (like this):

We're also thinking of doing a message in a bottle - with people posting advice/thoughts that we'd get them to fill in at the table and then post in a bottle but the nearer I get to the wedding the more things I can't be bothered to think about disappear off the plan list I'm starting to think this will be one of them. But if we did look at it, we'd be looking at something like this:

Im having a wishing tree and have made the tags, my youngest bm's are in charge of getting folks to sign it!

Your idea looks nice, i have printed instructions on card and have a little easel for it to sit next to the tree.

We're having a jar similar to the 'message in a bottle' above. Then we can leave card and pens on tables so that (hopefully) guests can fill out their message whilst they're waiting for dinner. Fingers crossed!

We had a fingerprint tree with a an area around it for people to write messages. It's now hanging up in our lounge and it's lovely to look at every day.

I figured we'd look at a guest book once and then it'll just sit in a cupboard!

We're having the fill me in/colouring poster, with space for short messages. Because most of our friends will love a bit of colouring in. It'll be in a frame so we're planning to hang it afterwards!

We're having a guest book, one from the Brightside collection as it will match all our wedding planning books. I did business cards and a postbox for my mums 60th to write messages on and it wasn't very successful so I think just mentioning the guest book in a speech or getting the wedding coordinator to encourage people to sign it might just work this time round.

We are going to get a magnum champagne bottle and ask our guests to sign it. We will then plan to drink it on our first anniversary.

I have thought about every guest book option, and decided against one.. I don't have a big house for a wishing tree decoration to be on display after, and as we are not having a gift list I assume people will give us cards with a donation inside. I don't want them to basically repeat the message from their card into a guest book.

I love that idea! I'd hope to see a sign next to it, explaining your intentions, as I wouldn't have been able to guess that one!

I would definitely participate if I saw that one

I echo this - I started out a year ago with grand plans. I purchased tonnes of stuff to make the most exquisite guest book, and now I've thrown that idea out the window, partly because I couldn't be bothered with it anymore as I'd lost the enthusiasm, but am also now too busy.

(ermmmm, anybody want a load of vintage scrapbooking 12x12 and embellishments, lol ?).

After all that grand planning, we decided with about 2 months to go get a plain white guestbook, with a particular set of pens, and scan all the messages into the computer. What we're doing is going low-tech at the wedding to keep it simple, but then transferring to high-tech afterwards. We're overlaying the messages over photos / around photos in our wedding photo album, putting the message with the photo of that particular friend etc. We've had a practice with a particular thickness of pen, our scanner, and an online photobook creation place. It works, and we feel that we'll appreciate that more than a separate book of guest comments. If I get any wedding cards that I also want to keep for posterity (I can't imagine that'll be all of them), I think I'll also scan those and have a separate section at the back of the album.

We have a polaroid camera and a photo album so people can take pic and write us a message. I've put an usher and ushette in charge of drumming up enthusiasm for it and pointing people in the right direction.

We have gone for a fairly neutral one in white and silver from Marks & Spencer. I am going to get one of my friends to bully people into signing it!

I am going to have a signing frame. I love the idea of having it up on the wall afterwards and reminding me of my day

I'm trying to decide what to do about our guestbook too. One thing I don't really understand is the fingerprint trees - they aren't really the same thing and when you look back on it, you can't identify the contributions by person. Just wondering if there's a rationale for them as I see them all over the forum and Pinterest?

I think we will have one, not too sure what type yet though. Love the idea you have posted, but after a few too many, I don't think many people will use it.

One idea I love is keep your guest book somewhere safe (or give it to someone to look after) and only read all the comments on your first wedding anniversary. I think it's a lovely idea.

lol, I'll take them off your hands ?

Thanks for your replies, lots of different ideas out there and things for me to think about! I might get some mini envelopes and put them on the tables with a note on top, so people can fill them in while waiting in between courses and post them in our card box. Will see what OH says!

We bought a cheap eBay one and coloured pens. It was put on a little table in our venue entrance. Sadly one of the kids accidentally knocked a vase of flowers over it so thankfully we hadn't spent a lot on it! We dried it out and my mum got all the washed out signatures back. We got it out and read it a few months ago, we had quite a good laugh at it. I'd have been upset if I'd had a jigsaw one (like id wanted) and it had been wrecked!

At first I was going to with a wishing tree because I thought the messages from everyone would be great, but then realised they would just be gathering dust somewhere afterwards. Also I've been as a guest to several weddings and I never know what to write on the guestbooks, and this included other people who didn't know what to write. The majority of people just wrote the same thing with a few different words used and didn't seem that meaningful to me.

I then saw the finger print trees and thought that it would be something that we can hang up and look at. I'm not really bothered by the 'can't identify the contributions by people' but more that those people were there to celebrate the marriage.

I saw a lady selling these at a local wedding show. I love them and think it would look lovely mounted in a farme taking pride of place in my lounge. Just get your guests to write a message on each piece :0)

I'm having a guest book, nothing fancy though as I am hoping most of my guests will leave me a message x