Is a guest book necessary?

saintpaulJess · June 2011

I'm not sure that I want one or what I would do with it later.

What do you think? Any ideas for something different?

colstj1 · June 2011

We are having one, but I don't thinnk it is at all necessary. Hence why people are kind of changing it up these days with like wishing trees or other options. So, I think if you want to skip it that will be totally fine

kaylas16 · June 2011

I agree with colstj...I think its unnecessary especially if you think you will never look at it. We are only having one because we are having a photo booth and having the attendant clue the photo strips into the book. That's our guestbook! I think we will look at it again, but probably not many times even with photos.

KateJ10 · June 2011

I had considered having a marriage certificate or scroll (from artful celebrations) made, but it is a bit pricey and I haven't yet been able to justify the cost. It could be framed and put up on the wall of our home. If we don't do that we probably won't do much of anything for it, because I know a traditional guest book would never be looked at by me.

esunada · June 2011

We are not doing one either. People scribble stuff you can barely read or write their signature in a way that's unidentifiable. And people often write the same thing, "hope your...." haha. Some people use it as a way to identify who came to the wedding, but if you are doing assigned seats, than you'll see the leftover placecards on the table.

mlschn06 · June 2011

We are getting a huge wine bottle and having everyone sign it- then on our one year anniversary we plan on opening it and celebrating with everyone and keeping the bottle on display in our bar area. I think guest books are definitely not necessary, but it was fun trying to come up with an idea for something that we would be able to keep out on display in our home. I like the signature picture frames too

rachi1285 · June 2011

The guests won't miss it. It's more for you anyways, so if you don't need one, skip it!

ogrady88 · June 2011

I agree, it isn't necessary. We just did a photo book with pictures of us. I also figured that I wouldn't really do anything with it.

shan87 · June 2011

I planned on doing the photo matte option and bought 2 beautiful and expensive frames. I wanted immediate family, friends and WP to sign it so I could hang it up in our apt. Well no one ended up signing it because it was high pressure haha. They didn't like knowing we would be displaying what they wrote. I was bummed. But I am going to try to resell the frames now.

We did do a photo guest book and I have to say H and I had a blast reading it the next day. (We had pages likes.... Favorite Memory of David and Shannan, Where should David and Shannan Vacation to, What should they always remember in a fight, etc etc) I plan to use it as a coffee table book because it has pictures of H and I from the last 7 years starting from the beginning of our relationship to the wedding.

If you are only doing one to see who came than I would skip it, but I would recommend the photo book option

SSaltzman87 · June 2011

I'm not a fan of the traditional guest book, I'm thinking of possibly making a photo book that would be used as one with pictures of FI and I when we were kids, teenagers etc. and people could sign it yearbook style. It's definitely not necessary to have a guestbook, but further down the line as I'm going down memory lane-it'd be nice to have a tangible memory of who all was there.

khornbach · June 2011

I was sweating over this trying to come up with a really cool new idea for a guest book. In the end I picked up a $20 guestbook from a shop in stillwater and am calling it a day. I think they're nice to have, but I've given up on coming up with something really unique and cool. Hopefully you are more cretive than I am and can come up with something awesome!

FutureMrsSheeler · June 2011

We're doing one. It'll be a shutterfly photobook, just so it is a keep sake, and fun to look at

martiac225 · June 2011

Not necessary at all, but like Shan we really enjoyed looking through ours the next day and will def look at it now and then through the years. We did a photobook with our e pics and left white spaces for people to write on. We got some really nice messages and it seems that most people signed it. I thought it was a good way to use and show off our e pics and I am really happy we did it. At the end of the day, it goes on a book shelf with all of our other photo albums which are priceless to me.

saintpaulJess · June 2011

Thanks for the feedback, ladies! It really helps to hear what everyone else is doing.

aligross · June 2011

We wanted something different from the old style sign your name guestbook at the ceremony. We made a mixbook (thank you groupon) with our engagement photos and we will be asking guests to leave us a message and a signature! ALSO because we're HUGE sports fans, we are going to have a MN Twins Jersey done with our new last name and our wedding date as the number - we're asking guests to simply give us their autograph... this will be framed and placed in our home with all of the other sports memorabilia.
We're asking one of my friends to be the "greeter" and essentially explain to our guests what we are looking for!

I Want Cake · June 2011

We got one of those pictures with the family tree in our colors from an Etsy seller where you sign the leaves, and it worked out well. There isn't really any room to write any rambling thoughts, but if you just want a record of who was there, it worked well for us. We'll frame it and display it so it actually gets seen. I didn't want to do the traditional book that gets looked at one and then stuck on a bookshelf for all eternity. Some people like the traditional books so they can have people write in their addresses for thank-you cards, but I figure if you invited them in the first place, then you already have their address. Just another idea.

nordke · June 2011

We're also doing a photo guest book that I made on Shutter Fly with our e-pics...figured it's a good way to do something with them, otherwise, knowing me, they would've just stayed on the disc that the photographer put them on.

tpender13 · June 2011

We did a photo mat for signatures. It turned out really neat, b/c some people just signed their names, some signed little notes or doodles. We still need to print out a wedding pic to put in it though... 7 months later...

Is a guest book necessary?

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