Wedding Wednesday: Creative Guest Book Ideas

Guest books can be an extremely special heirloom from your wedding.  They can also be slightly impersonal and confusing (what do I do with this thing now that the wedding is over and why did everyone just sign their name??), but don't fear - here are some cool ideas for guest books that will be fun for your guests and fun for you to revisit after your BIG DAY.

One of our personal faves is the Wishing Tree.  This does take a little bit of work and you will need to coordinate with your florist, but it makes a great decorative statement at your reception and the wishes will be personal and touching (or humorous at the very least)!  Have your florist put together branches and find beautiful paper to have your guests write wishes on.  Etsy is a great resource for these.  We especially love these from Artful Beginnings. 

A really cool take on this is to have the wishing tree as your centerpiece on your tables.  The guest's place card can act as the wish card.   Simply have a smaller wishing tree placed on each table (2 birds, 1 stone)!

We also love a coffee table book as your guest book.  Find an interesting coffee table book that you and your fiance both like and have that displayed as the guest book at your wedding.  Your guests can flip through and find a page they like and sign directly on the page.  Every time you look at the pretty pics in the book, you will also read kind words from your guests.  Taschen has GREAT books that would work with just about any destination or theme. 

This same idea will work with children's books (we love The Veleveteen Rabbit and it can double as a reading at your ceremony) and cookbooks (try Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home - the fried chicken is AMAZING).   If you can find a vintage book, all the better!

This is a little harder to pull-off, but if you have a polaroid camera (you can still find them on ebay), it is very fun to have guests take polaroids and write a note on them or in your book.  Be careful though, if you don't have someone "man" your polaroid station, the pics do have a tendency to walk-off.  It is best if you have a pretty photo album right there to affix the picture in.  Guests can then sign their page with their picture. 

Photobooth companies are also doing their take on this idea.  The photobooth will print two copies and the guest keeps one and one immediately goes in your album which the guests accompany with a note.  Bonus, a lot of times they send a staff member to manage this for you.  

If you are hosting a destination wedding, a good guest book idea is to provide postcards for guests to write notes to you.   You can then stamp and mail those right back to yourself.  By the time you return from your honeymoon, you will have fun reminders of your wedding weekend.  This cuts down on having to lug a guestbook home while providing a sweet keepsake.  Tie them up with a pretty ribbon and read them when you like.  We love vintage postcards but any will work (after you have had them for 20 years, they will be vintage!).  Even better if you can include a charming mailbox at the reception for guests to drop them in!

Be creative!  The options are endless!