Guestbook. Are they waste of time?

Our guestbook was tied to our photo booth so people put a picture in alongside their message which is great, but my only regret is not having someone in charge to make sure people completed it. if you are going to have any guestbook you need someone like a BM or family member to be in charge of circulating it as otherwise people forget or if it is just on a table it gets overlooked. Not heard of the Audio book, sounds different but wonder if it is something that takes a bit of time to do if people will do it.

I don't know anyone who looks at their guestbooks, so my feeling is that they are a waste of money unless you do an alternative one. I know one couple who had a plate which people signed, and then they had it fired and used it as a cake plate. I've also seen framed displays. We bought a cheap version of table Jenga, the idea being that everyone signs a brick, only we couldn't do it because of Covid regs when we got married. But I liked that idea because it was something we could have used.

How many guests are you having as that might limit/widen your options?

We had 27 guests so a standalone guest book would be mostly empty. I saw ideas of messages on a photo frame but I was worried someone would make a mistake or cross something out and I would always notice it. In the end we got everyone to write on a piece of card (they could start again if they made a mistake), took photos of them and put them in our wedding album along with the rest of our photos. It means they get read everytime the album comes out.

Hey Maddison, I'm a wedding photographer and I share your pain! I hate 'normal' guestbooks. Just a lot of blank pages with nothing to write in them. I find that people usually just copy what other guests write in a desperate plea to at least write something, and therefore you're left with 200 versions of "congratulations, you looked beautiful; wishing you every happiness in the future" etc etc! Not exactly Booker Prize worthy.

I'll be honest I've not witnessed an audio version yet. I make custom guestbooks for my clients with funny questions, drawing prompts & romantic tips for dates/anniversaries or happy marriage etc to inspire better responses. They've told me they had the best time going through the book the day after. I usually pair the pages with photos from their engagement shoot photos, as it comes with my package anyway.

I hope this helps!

Amie x

I was at a wedding last Friday and they had an Audio guest book. Just like yourself I’ve wanted one. It put me off. All it was was all the drunk woman screaming shania Twain songs down it and singing happy birthday to whoever’s birthday it was in the room. As far as I am aware there were absolutely no nice messages on there so I’ve completely changed my mind. Shame really as it seemed a lovely thing and could listen to all our loved ones voices on it over and over again, but that’s what you get when you mix alcohol.

I am doing a photo guest book. So I have polaroid camera, where people can take photos stick them in and then write a message. I am putting one of my bridesmaids in charge of this, to make sure people complete it and do it nicely. Ive bought different tapes for people to use and pens for people to use.

I went to a wedding Saturday just gone and literally nobody touched it or even looked at it. It was at the entrance too so many people just walked past I did pick it up and go to my table and wrote something in I think it has 3 messages so far so I passed it around the table.
Funny story actually I had to write someone’s message in for them as they didn’t have their glasses this was what they said
“May all your ups and downs” they paused and I wrote it and looked up they continue to say “under the duvet” …..thank my later if you put it in your speeches 😂😂😂😂 it did make me laugh but I’m answer to your question I probably won’t have one at mine, although somebody did have a photo booth at a wedding I went to and they put the picture on one side and you can write a message on the other. That was cool!

So as part of our photography package, we get an album of photos (as most people do I guess) that are printed in a bound book, all displayed in a box. We asked our photographers for an engagement shoot, and then our photographers suggested putting those into a printed album to use as a guest book....so there are pictures on every page of various sizes with blank bits for people to write on.
We've each changed our profile picture on Facebook to be one of the photos from our engagement session, we have a print of another on the back of our invite, and 2 or so more on our Wedding Website. There are 30 'unseen' photos in the book, as well as the 5 we've already shared so it'll be something for people to look at. Our photographer said that they see people flick through and write on a page where they like the photos too.

We're also going to be asking our bridal party to write in it before the wedding, so that people don't have the 'I don't want to be first!'. We will also be putting it away about an hour after evening guests arrive...so as to avoid the drunken scribbles 👀
Pros:

- More likely to look at it because there are our engagement photos and notes in there

- The album and box will match our wedding album - a matching set if you will

- No completely blank pages

Cons:

- It was not cheap. You probably could do it for cheaper, but you'd still be purchasing the photos from your photographer which accounts for a fair amount of the cost

- Needs more planning as it takes time for the shoot, the editing, the proof of the book, printing and delivery of the book. Unlike ordering generic Guestbook from online.

It depends how much you want to spend I do see a quite a lot of the instant camera ones where the guests do a selfie and stick it in a book full of other guests photos along with their comments. Some use Polaroid and there is also a fujifilm instax version. These are not cheap but you could sell the camera after.

A tip is to allocate someone the job of checking that it is passed around. A good time is just after your meal so it gets passed from table to table. If you leave it on a seperate table somewhere then it is likely to get missed.

We’re doing a fingerprint guestbook which we’ll then frame and put up in the house as artwork. The plan is to have people use their fingerprint to complete a music note on a sheet of music, which then reveals the song to our first dance. Sort of like this: https://shopbdt.com/products/music-sheet-fingerprint-notes-wedding-guest-book-alternative-kit-with-1-black-ink-pad-pen-customized-artwork
Music is a huge part of our relationship and I don’t think we’d really look back over a traditional guestbook.

Me and my OH had a lot of different ideas when it came to Guest Books, we went from a standard one, to a 'connect 4' style one, but we've brought a photo frame & had it made like this link - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Panoramic-Wedding-Guest-Book-Signing/dp/B0747TD611/ref=sr_1_8?keywords=Guestbook+Wedding+Frame&qid=1680166295&sr=8-8

So we can hang it up in the house, with our favourite wedding photographs & everyone's signatures.

We also get another guest book with our photo booth package, so if someone doesn't sign one, hopefully they will sign the other x

We've done an Audio Guestbook. Cost us £195 which was 1/3rd of the cost of most at the time, but you can now buy outright for £200 and wipe it before selling on

View quoted message Ah brilliant! That's good to know, thank you!

Im thinking of going with the puzzle pieces guests sign then its put together and framed. No point in a book i dont think as it will end up in the attic forgotten about.

We are looking at getting some artificial leaves for our guests to sign. We are getting married in September, so just as the leaves start to turn. We intend to get them framed as a tree.

Any dodgy/inappropriate ones can go in our wedding scrapbook!

I just know we won't look at a book, so something we can frame and mount on the wall is definitely the way to go!

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That music note one is a cleaver idea also being your first dance.

It reminds me of about 12 years ago fingerprint trees were very popular. Its a ink drawn bare tree and the fingerprints are the leaves, the wedding couple have already started it off with theirs and sometimes they are the birds in the tree.

Baby wipes are the best thing for removing the ink from fingers and be prepared for smudges.

We are having a pinata for everyone to write a message on a card and pop in them we are going to smash it open on our first anniversary