Alternative to Guest Book

kp82883 · February 2014

So I am looking for an alternative to a guest book. I saw something on Pinterest last night that I thought was cute. It is "signing rocks"..so they are rocks that people would sign and then maybe put into a vase..

What are other alternatives that people are using? Aside from a framed matte pic that people sign around.

emmyg65 · February 2014

We didn't have a guest book.

mollykmac · February 2014

One thing I've seen is a paper with a bare "tree" drawn/painted on it, and then have each guest put their finger in a stamp pad (2, one for each wedding color) and press it on the paper as "leaf," and then put their initials next to it.... the idea of course was to frame it later.

A lot of people do the mad libs at the table, but I don't know how you put those into keepsake form afterwards.

Jen4948 · February 2014

Why do you want an alternative to a guest book as opposed to a guest book? If all you want is for guests to sign their names, why would it make a difference whether they sign a book or something else?

kp82883 · February 2014

Jen- I would like something that I will actually look at again. I see a guestbook being shoved somewhere and never thought of again. I received about 15 different ideas on another wedding site. There are just so many more creative ways to do it out there now.

AddieCake · February 2014

We did the rocks. We keep them in a vase in our home, and it's one of my favorite things.

jenna8984 · February 2014

I got this idea from another Knottie. We are big on travel, we go on 2 trips per year. So we got a vintage looking suitcase (the width of a laptop not an actual suitcase) and we bought vintage postcards on ebay. Everyone will sign/ write a little something on the back of a postcard and put it in the suitcase. We will likely make a big collage and frame it with some showing the writing and some showing the front of the postcards. It'll go perfectly in our dining room which is travel themed with huge framed maps on the wall. We only have 55 guests though so it's not like trying to make a collage with 200 postcards lol.

indianaalum · February 2014

We did an engraveable picture frame. They signh with a special pen on the actual picture frame. That way, you can hang it with your wedding pictures once the wedding is over.

Ven&Radio · February 2014

The fingerprint tree, in addition to making guests fingers messy, is also asking your guests to give you their personally identifying information. I wouldn't be comfortable with this.

I really wanted something we could display afterwards, also. It was important to my husband that guests could write as much as they wanted. We ended up getting a beautiful custom book from an Etsy vendor that is now on display in our living room (luckily our wedding colors coordinated with our decor!)

Gerbertmcway · February 2014

I'm thinking of getting a large canvas print of my fiancé and I that our guests can sign, but I'm worried about it not being big enough for ~100 guests to sign.

Jen4948 · February 2014

kp82883 said:

Jen- I would like something that I will actually look at again. I see a guestbook being shoved somewhere and never thought of again. I received about 15 different ideas on another wedding site. There are just so many more creative ways to do it out there now.

How do you know you will even look at one of the "creative" alternatives if you're not going to look at a guest book itself?

JennyColada · February 2014

Fi and I are big foodies, so we are going to get a wooden cutting board and have our guests sign it (it helps that we are only have like 6 guests).

JennyColada · February 2014

Jen4948 said:

kp82883 said:

Jen- I would like something that I will actually look at again. I see a guestbook being shoved somewhere and never thought of again. I received about 15 different ideas on another wedding site. There are just so many more creative ways to do it out there now.

How do you know you will even look at one of the "creative" alternatives if you're not going to look at a guest book itself?

Well, I think with some of the ideas that people are mentioning, you can put them around your house as decoration (the rocks in a vase) or art on the wall (like the tree poster or what I plan on doing with my cutting board).

The guest book might be fun to have on your coffee table for a few months, but after that it will probably just be filed away on a bookshelf.

symondscox · February 2014

I saw an idea on Pinterest.com that I'm greatly leaning towards. It was a pre-made piece of art, stretched canvas on a wood frame, of a pink heart on a teal or turquoise blue background. Guests signed the canvas and then the whole thing would be hung in the new couple's home.

I hate clutter and would probably never look through a wedding guest book again after the big day. This idea lets you take advantage of vertical space.

MrandMrsMongoose · February 2014

The idea I am loving is to get a large wooden cutout of the initial of our last name and have people sign that. I found wooden cutouts pretty reasonably priced on etsy.

AprilH81 · February 2014

I had the same dilemma and I was leaning towards doing the thumbprint tree, but I couldn't find a design that I thought I would want on my wall 10 years from now.

Our photographer got wonderful engagement photos during our session, too many to frame. I saw a Shutterfly promotion on Facebook for a free photo guest book so I decided to do it (can't beat free!!!). They had several different layouts so you can have pages that are just pictures, and some that are a mix of pictures and white space for messages, and some that are the traditional lined pages where people just sign their names.

It turned out beautifully and we actually had most of our guests sign it (which doesn't always happen). I ordered the book knowing that if nothing else, we had a nice album of our engagement pictures, if people actually used it as a guest book even better.

Here is a link to our guest book (pre-signatures of course): <clicky>

mimiphin · February 2014

Ven&Radio said:

The fingerprint tree, in addition to making guests fingers messy, is also asking your guests to give you their personally identifying information. I wouldn't be comfortable with this.

I really wanted something we could display afterwards, also. It was important to my husband that guests could write as much as they wanted. We ended up getting a beautiful custom book from an Etsy vendor that is now on display in our living room (luckily our wedding colors coordinated with our decor!)

My BM had cute stamps at her wedding, same idea as a thumb print but you don't get messy or get their fingerprints. I thought it was a really cute idea and it looks more like a tree with flowers on it.

doeydo · February 2014

Jenga pieces

Puzzle

Sign a leaf/balloon/whatever
Wedding Guest Book Poster Guestbook Tree Unique Guest Book Royal Blue Wedding Guestbook for 125 Guests Wedding Tree Guest Book Poster

Wedding Guest Book Poster Guestbook Tree Unique Guest Book Royal Blue Wedding Guestbook for 125 Guests Wedding Tree Guest Book Poster

Signed wooden hearts/other shapes in a shadow box
Shadow box wedding guest book and Unique Heart Guestbook - 140 hearts - Shadow Box Included

Wine bottles to open on various anniversaries

Photos/polaroids
Instant Photo Wedding Guest Book Polaroid Instamax fuji photo booth Purple Rustic Elegant

alice917 · February 2014

Just found a shop on Etsy today that has some pretty cool prints for guest book alternatives. I'm sure there are others so it might be worth a search for inspiration!

HisGirlFriday13 · February 2014

DH and I are huge, huge readers (like, collectively we own well into the thousands of books) and we fell in love in part through our shared love of reading.

On each table at our reception (12 tables), we put a copy of one of our favourite books and had people write messages in those. We get to re-read the messages every time we pull out our books to read them.

jenniferurs · February 2014

My photo booth vendor offers a guest book, into which people can tape one of the three photo strips they're given and then write a message next to it.

mollykmac · February 2014

I love the puzzle and the Jenga set!! Although I feel like my jenga games would start taking longer...haha.

charlotteetier · February 2014

We are actually doing this: https://www.etsy.com/listing/164231043/alternative-wedding-guest-book-tree?ref=listing-shop-header-0

Which is a great alternative to the thumb print option and we can't wait to display it in our home!

And you can coordinate it with your wedding colors

misscoffeeplease · February 2014

Photo guestbook with our engagement photos and I will being do a thumb-print tree.

all+that+sparkles · February 2014

I'm thinking along the same lines as MraandMrsMongoose....either the single initial...or all the letters in our last name, mount the letters on a burlap wrapped price of wood after the wedding and hang it on a wall near the front door.

mlg78 · February 2014

I ordered wooden hearts that people wrote messages on and we have them in a vase in our home.

artist1320 · April 2014

Fingerprint Tree Guest books.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/CardsnLetters

Alexis Fielder · April 2014

I want to do the jenga pieces! the only problem I foresee is having 150 jenga pieces … that's one big tower! Ill feel bad throwing some out.

Jen4948 · April 2014

The one thing I wouldn't want to do are the fingerprint/thumbprint things, but that's because I don't want to get ink on my hands-especially at an occasion that involves food. I also wouldn't want to spill the ink.

carliealissa · April 2014

Jen4948 said:

The one thing I wouldn't want to do are the fingerprint/thumbprint things, but that's because I don't want to get ink on my hands-especially at an occasion that involves food. I also wouldn't want to spill the ink.

Wouldn't you just be using a stamp pad?

I don't really like the thumbprint thing because there's no room for people to write messages. Why does anyone want a picture of just everyone's name who was at the wedding? Might as well just frame your RSVP cards or excel spreadsheet or something.

Jen4948 · April 2014

carliealissa said:

Jen4948 said:

The one thing I wouldn't want to do are the fingerprint/thumbprint things, but that's because I don't want to get ink on my hands-especially at an occasion that involves food. I also wouldn't want to spill the ink.

Wouldn't you just be using a stamp pad?
I don't really like the thumbprint thing because there's no room for people to write messages. Why does anyone want a picture of just everyone's name who was at the wedding? Might as well just frame your RSVP cards or excel spreadsheet or something.

That's possible, but I still wouldn't want to risk getting ink where it doesn't belong.

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