Creative Guest Book Alternatives

At this time last year, the major elements of planning our wedding were done; venue chosen, attire purchased, wedding party committed, etc. This is when the details came in, which were the most fun part! I could have spent hours on Pinterest and still never run out of new ideas to integrate into our wedding. Unfortunately, it would probably have been a little bit of overkill to change my dress 4 times, have 3 first dance songs (although I guess I could have done a medley 😉 or have a different guest book for every corner of the venue.

The evolution of the traditional guest book is such a great opportunity for a couple to further personalize their wedding. These super creative guest book ideas offer guests a unique glimpse in to the couple’s life through incorporating their hobbies, photos, or even their home decor musings.

Photo Guest Book

What a great way to incoporate engagement pictures in to the wedding! Shutterfly offers numerous photo guest book layouts, or you can design your own. I can say that I haven’t looked at our engagement pictures in ages, but had I had them in our guest book it might be a different story.

Shutterfly Photo Guest Book

Personal Keepsake

If you have read my blog before you may recall that I am a big of an Ohio State fanatic. The same holds true for 2 of our friends who were married on the 4th of July last year. You may or may not know that the “O” in Ohio State is referred to by us Buckeyes as “the Block O.” Our friends’ last name is Block, so they incorporated the Block O in to a wall hanging they had made which was displayed at the entrance to the reception for guests to sign as they came in. I loved this! It was such a creative way for them to incorporate something that they love (the Buckeyes!) in to their wedding, making it that much more personal.

Block O Wall Hanging made at Michael’s

Table Numbers/wine bottle “guest book”

I love a good twofer! These champagne guest bottles double as table numbers for the reception. Each guest at a table will sign the bottle with a metallic pen, and the couple will be reminded of their guest’s well wishes as they toast for each anniversary with the corresponding year’s bottle.

Photo source Jennifer Bergman Weddings

Guest Video Messages

This trend has been growing in popularity over the last couple of years. Many photo booths have a video feature in which guests can record their thoughts for the couple to view. This is easy to DIY as well with a video, computer or iPad camera set up in a corner. Martha Stewart adds a prop to this guest book option with a movie clapper (the thing the movie makers snap before yelling “action”, I had no idea that’s what they were called!) The guests sign their name on the clapper board with a chalk marker and get to play director of their own video message.

Martha Stewart Weddings

Personalized Wine Cork Shadow Box

Wine cork decor isn’t going anywhere any time soon. I love this shadow box cork keeper engraved with the couple’s names and wedding date! Guests sign their name and wishes on a wine cork to be displayed in the shadowbox at the couple’s home. Precious!

Organik Creative on Etsy

Initial Guest Sign

Newlyweds get a little excited over monograms, don’t you think? Note that I include myself in that generalization (especially because I’m closer to the beginning of the alphabet now; too bad it’s too late to benefit me in the school line). This monogram initial of the new couple’s last name, signed by their wedding guests, is a beautiful memento for the couple to incorporate in to their home decor.

Lise Simple Creations on Etsy

Photo booth photo album guest book

Our guests had a blast with the photo booth at our wedding, there was not a time throughout the night that there wasn’t a line to get in! We incorporated our guest book with our photo booth, very similar to the one shown below from Boho Weddings. The photo booth attendant distributed pictures to everyone as they exited the booth, then he taped one copy of each strip into this Live, Laugh, Love scrapbook. Guests signed next to their picture(s) and it has become a wonderful reminder for us of the fun we had with all of our friends and family.

I saw these blank chalkboard speech bubble signs on Amazon and thought that these would be a fun way to integrate photo booth props into the guest book. Guests can write their names and well wishes on the sign in chalk rather than in the guest book. It would be so fun to have pictures of the guests with their signs made in to a photo collage!

The signs would be fairly easy to DIY too if you walk on the crafty side of the road. Find more DIY wedding ideas here.

DIY Chalkboard Speech Bubble Signs

Materials:

Con-Tact chalkboard self-adhesive paper
White foam core board (cardboard would work as well)
Free printable speech bubble template
Wood craft sticks
Chalk markers

Directions:

1. Roll out the Con-Tact paper several days before you start and anchor the corners with heavy books (this will help straighten the paper out and make it much easier to work with).

2. Print the free bubble speech templates in desired styles and sizes. (If you have a cutting machine, you can find bubble speech templates online, then your machine can cut the Con-Tact paper for you. Skip to step 4.)

3. Arrange the templates on the Con-Tact paper, securing with tape, and cut around them with an x-acto knife.

4. Remove the backing from the Con-Tact paper to expose the adhesive and affix to the board.

5. Cut around the board with an the x-acto knife.

6. Using a hot glue gun, glue a craft stick to the back of each bubble sign (this will be the handle for the sign).

7. Have chalk pens available for guests to write their notes, as well as a chalk remover for in between shots.

Wedding Mad libs

I could spend hours on end doing mad libs when I was younger, and when I saw this mad-lib as a creative guest book alternative, I immediately wished I had seen it before our wedding! Reading through all of these after the wedding and beyond would bring laughs for years to come!

Wedding mad lib guest book on Luulla

Guest “book” Puzzle

I’ve seen guest book puzzle ideas before, but not one as pretty as this to decorate with. Every guest gets their very own puzzle piece to sign, which come together to form this beautiful piece of artwork.