Guest book alternative

We're having paper bunting that we'll put up in our house when we move

- A friend did a bunting idea also. Each guest was sent a triangle of bunting before the wedding to decorate, write on, sew on etc as a guest book. Its now all sewn together and hung around their living room

- Get a small tablecloth or large tea towel, all guests sign it with a brief message, then get someone to go over the signatures with a sewing machine. You can put this into a glass fronted frame

- Those finger print trees. Each guest presses their thumb print onto a piece of paper to form the shape of a tree

We've made a jar of hearts - we've brought loads of heart shaped gift tags in various colours, cuts etc. which are in a basket, put lace and pearls around a glass jar (looks better than it sounds!) and made a sign with instructions. Not sure if it will work, but I didn't want a traditional guest book. I like the bunting idea!

We're having one of these:

http://guestbookpuzzles.co.uk/index.php/wedding-guest-book-puzzles.html

I think we're having a fingerprint tree and a guest book... I've noticed a lot of people barely notice just the book, but his family have a tradition (well, I'd never heard of it before) of sticking the wedding cards into the guest book, so it's not a huge issue if no one uses it.

I also like the phrase "Advice to the Bride and Groom" rather than a standard "Guest book" as it makes it feel less olde/more day appropriate

I do also love the wooden heart idea and I'm sure that if people have something specific to say they'd give you a card anyway?

We're having a dictionary with bookmarks so people can choose a word that they 'wish' us or that makes them think of us or the wedding, write it on the bookmark with a message and the pop it into the dictionary at the appropriate page. Our thought is that the dictionary will always be part of our home, bookmarks and all, and we'll be able to use as needed - perhaps even helping our children with their homework one day!

I wanted something a little different too than an actual book. We are having a typewriter, which suits the vintagey, literary theme we are having running through our wedding. And also, I love typewriters! I have just this morning bought one too...a lovely metally blue one from the late 50s. And the joy is, I can keep it afterwards! Now to source some gorgeous paper for it. A friend is a book binder too so we considered asking her if she could use her skills to make it into an actual book too!

I love the jigsaw idea too...because jigsaws are AWESOME!

I think there are so many different ways of having an alternative to a regular guest book. And I like them all more than just a book.

We've gone for the frame idea. It's a large collage frame so I will put in photos of our engagement shoot and our daughter and doggies for the day and then some wedding photos after so it can go on the wall with every bodies words and wishes and hopefully will be something we often look at x

I was going for the fingerprint tree idea; we're lacking pictures in our house as i don't like generic art thats in every store - hoping the tree will look so good it can be framed as a print on the wall.

But probably having a book as well for those that like to write a message - fantastic idea above of sticking wedding cards in it too!

Ooh I forgot to say I was also going to get a jar and write married life bucket loat with little bits of paper next to it and people can write ideas for things they think are a must do for experiences together. X

We had a fingerprint tree with a signing board around the edge. It's now proudly hung on our living room wall.

what a wonderfully original idea!

Another with some form of fingerprint poster (not decided whether to go for a tree or something more in our theme) with a mount for people to write their wishes on so we can frame it afterwards. I did like the jigsaws but couldn't find any below £50 and didn't want to spend much more than that on it.

https://www.notonthehighstreet.com/lillypeadesigns/product/hand-drawn-wedding-fingerprint-tree

https://www.notonthehighstreet.com/afewhometruths

We're having the drop top guest booked. Found a lady who has them made, very high quality for £175. Looking forward to having it hung on the wall

I was wondering whether having regular jenga would work. I think I've heard of jumbo jenga being used - guests write messages on the pieces - but would regular sized jenga work, do you think? Or would it be too small to write enough?

We had a polaroid camera and a frame. We were so pleased with the results!

We had photo messages

Lovely idea!!

We've had some postcards of us made so people can write us messages and seal them up in the envelopes which came with them.

We had jenga ? People seemed to manage ok (although some later in the night are a bit tricky to read!!)

Some lovely and very original ideas here, thank you! The dictionary idea is so cute, & I love the idea of jigsaws & Jenga!!

TwoDucks, where have you ordered your heart frame from if you don't mind me asking?

We're having pebbles for people to write on, then going to glaze them after and place them in a big vase in our front room :-)

I really liked the idea of having a (small, potted) tree at the reception and asking guests to write on a wooden heart and hang it on the tree. I think our venue is a bit small for it though and we couldn't work out what to do with the hearts after the wedding so we canned the idea.

I love the drop top frame with the hearts in it though, might have to borrow that idea

Hiya, they're called Sparkilicious & Co. FB page is https://www.facebook.com/sparklicious1.co.uk?ref=ts&fref=ts x

We've made a miniature wedding room out of a cardboard box and dolls house tables and chairs, and we are asking everyone to make a plasticine model of themselves to put in the room so we have a mini wedding to keep!

I love some of the drop top books but they are so expensive... so i'm just going to print off some jigsaw shapes on good quality or patterned card and leave coloured pens (to match our theme) for people to write on. then after the day i can fill in others with photos from the day and fill a frame for our room with it.

Seriously! I was getting one from somewhere else, but yours looks so much better. They were charging me £220 for a pine frame with 100 hearts.

Hook me up?

xx

I'm having a drop box frame but making it myself. No way I want to pay crazy prices! I've budgeted 50 but don't think I'll even spend that!

I quite like the idea of blowing the dust off of my guestbook in decades to come :-) especially now I have found a cool steampunky designed one! I like the dictionary idea too :-)

Hi Lovely, ours is £175 for 120 hearts, fab quality. I've posted the link above xx

Thank you so much! X

Unfortunately, I left uni and was jobless around the date of OH's bday so I bought a large, almost A3 size, sketch book and used it to make a scrapbook of our relationship - I saved cinema tickets, napkins from restaurants, the score card of when I won a crazy golf ?, I tore pages out of my diary and printed off check ins/status' from Facebook and printed off pics etc. By the time the wedding comes, there will hopefully be enough pages at the back to use for a wedding guest book so people can look through our lives together and sign the back. Not sure though... Just don't want it to get ruined as a lot of time (and Prittstick!!) went into it.